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THE

THEOLOGICAL WORKS

OF

THOMAS PAINE.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED

THE PROFESSION OF FAITH OF A SAVOYARD VICAR,

BY J. J. ROUSSEAU ;

AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

BOSTON:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED AT THE BOSTON INVESTIGATOR OFFICE,

BY J. P. MENDUM.

1845.

• •

« • •• '

B

i

^ INTRODUCTION.

:^ BY THE EDITOR.

E-t
-I

'^ NO writer probably has exposed the impositions practised upon mankind under
'^ the garb of religion with more effect than Thomas Paine ; and no one has borne a
greater share of obloquy from tiiose who conceive their interests to be coimected with
a continuance of the fraud. Tlie pulpit and the press have teemed incessantly with
the most virulent censures against him. — But palieiU and persevering, temperate and
firm, he suffered no error to escape hiin, and the ex|)0sure of the blunders and ab-
surdities of his adversaries is the only revenge which he has condescended to take for
their insolent abuse. His object was the happiness of man, and no calumny could
(Sj divert him from his purpose. He conscientiously believed that human happiness de-
pended on the belief of one God, and the practice of moral virtue ; and that all reli-
gious faitli beyond that led to persecution and misery. History gives an awful
confirmation of the justness of his opinion. Dr. Bellamy, author of " The history
of ail religions," comes to this conclusion at last, that he was " well assiured
that true religion consists neither ia doctrines, nor opinions, but in uprightness of
neart."

Religion has been most shamefully perverted, for sinister purposes, and made to
consist in the belief of something supernatural and incomprehensible; and these in-
comprehensible beliefs are made to vary in different countries as may suit those who
i3Tannize over the minds and consciences of men. Thus, in some countries, he who
says he believes, tiiat a certain man, in former times, was translated bodily to heaven,
that another took a journey leisurely there in a fiery chariot, and that a third arrest-
ed the course of the sun to give him more daylight fur human slaughter, is denomin-
ated a pious, good man. In other countries, a person to gain the same appellation,
must believe that Mahomet, in one night, took a ride to heaven upon his horse Bo-
rack, had a long conversation with the angel Gabriel, visited all the planets, and got
■ to bed with his wife before morning ; and, upon another occasion, that he cut the
»^moon in two parts, and carried the one half in his pocket to light his army. Whilst
^M (III the contrary the pliilosopher, who, wishing to instruct and render his fellow men
1^ iiappy, honestly declares that he puts no faith in such idle stories, is considered an
\l impious, ivicked man.

0 It is time that these prejudices, so disgraceful to the intelligence of the present age,
\y should be banished from the world, and it behoves all men of understanding and
\ talents to lend a hel[)inghand to effect it.

^ " Prejudices," says Lequinio, an elegant French writer, in his work entitled, * Les
Prejuges Detruits,' " arise out of ignorance and the want of reflection; these are
the basis on which the system of despotism is erected,-and it is the master piece of
art in a tyrant, to perpetuate the stupidity of a nation, in order to perpetuate its
slavery and his own diiininion. If the multitude knew how to think, would they be
dupes to pliantoms, gliosts, hobgoblins, spirits, &c. as they have been at all times
and in all nations. What U nobility for example, to a man who thinks 1 What ar«
all those abstract beings, children of an exalted imagination, which have no existence
but in vulgar credulity, and who cease to have being as soon as we cease to believe in
them 1 The greatest, the most absurd, and tlie most foolish of all prejudices, is that
very prejudice wiiich induces men to believe that they are necessary for their hap-
piness, and for the very existence of society."

The same writer observes, that " while there are religions, we are told there will
be fanaticism, miracles, wars, knaves, and dupes. Tliere are penitents, fanatics,

.ri f«v.jr-: .^-i. g-^ ^

4 INTRODUCnON.

and hypocrites, in China and in Turkey, as well as in France ;* but there is not any
religion, perhaps, in which there exists such a spirit of intolerance as in that profess-
ed by the christian priests, the autlior of which preached up toleration by his exam-
ple, as well as by his precepts."

Notwithstanding the intolerant spirit which prevails pretty universally among all
those, who call themselves true believers ; notwithstanding the persecutions and in-
quisitorial tortures which take place daily, in a greater or less degree, throughout tlio
christian world, there are many who, although they profess liberal opinions, are so
indifferent in matters of religion, as to contend, that they ought not to be discussed,
except by those whose peculiar province it is to teach tliem. Upon this principle, Mr.
Paine has been condemned by many, even of his friends, as tliougli all men liad not
an equal stake at issue, and an equal right to express dieir opinions on so momen-
tous a subject. This sentiment exiiibits an apathy to human suflTering, in those wiu)
express it, that is certainly not very flattering to their goodness of heart.

Were it not for the writings of philosopliers, which, where they have been per-
mitted to be read, have in some measure sofiened tiie asperity of fanaticism, all Chris-
tendom would, no doubt, now experience the same sufferings as are at tliis time in-
dured in Spain, under the government of the pious Ferdinand.

Even Bishop Watson, who wrote an " apology for the Bible," in answer to the
" Age of Reason," disclaims the above illiberal sentiment ; graciously conceding
the right of private judgment in matters of religion. He says, " it would give me
much uneasiness to be reported an enemy to free inquiry in religious matters, or as
capable of being animated into any degree of personal malevolence against those
who differ from me in opinion. On the contrary, I look upon the right of private
judgment, in every concern respecting God and ourselves, as superior to the controul
of human authority."

It is with some reluctance that I make the following extract of a private letter, a
copy of which has lately been inclosed to me by my cori-espondent at New-York ;
but the contents are so much in point on this occasion, that I am induced to take the
liberty. It was written by one of the most distinguished patriots of the American
revolution, and who still remains a living witness of the services of those who essen-
tially contributed to that memorable event, in answer to a letter covering that of Mr.
Paine to Andrew A. Dean ; which will appear in this publication. — " I thank you,
Eir, for the inedited letter of Thomas Paine, which you have been so kind as to send
me. I recognize in it the strong pen and dauntless mind of Common Sense, which
among the numerous pamphlets written on tlie same occasion, so pre-eminently united
us in our revolutionary opposition.

" I return the two numbers of the periodical paper, as they appear to make part of
a regular file. The language of these is too harsh, more calculated to irritate than to
convince or to persuade. A devoted friend, myself to freedom of religious imjuii-y and
opinion, I am pleased to see others exercise the right without reproach or censure ;
and I respect their conclusions, however different from my own. It is their own
reason, not mine, nor that of any other, which has been given tliem by their creator
for the investigation of truth, and of the evidence.? even of those truths uliicli amy,
presented to us as revealed by himself. Fanaticism, it is true, is not sparing of "^
her invectives against those who refuse Mindly to follow her dictates in abandon- -J
ment of their own reason. For the use of this reason, however, every one is responsi- ^
ble to the God who has planted it in his breast, as a light for his giiidiuicc, and that -<
by wliich alone he will be judged. Yet why retort invectives 1 It is better always •■
to set a good example than to foHow a bad one." '

The advice recommended to controvertist.s in the foregoing letter is ccrtainlv wor-
thy to be adopted. That recrimination, however, should some times l)e resorted to,
by those who advocate liberal opinions, is not suqirising, when we take into consider-
ation the dicUitorial stile in which ignorance is cultivated by tliose who reap the ad-
vantage of it, anil the asperity with which those arc attackcnl who attempt to un-
deceive mankind, and to discover to them their true interests, by pointing out the
errors with which they are surroimded.

" Error," says St. Pierre, in his Indiaii Cottage, or Searcli after Truth, " ia the
work of man ; it is alwavs an evil. It is a false lig'it which shines to lead us astray.
I cannot l)etter compare U than to the glare of a fire which consumes tiie habitation
it illumines. It is worthy of remark, that there is not a single moral or physical
evil but has an error for its principle. Tyrannies, slavery and wars, are founded OQ

♦The author's country.

INTRODUCTION. 5

political errors, nay even on sacred ones ; for the tyrants who have propagated them
have constantly derived them from the Divinity, or some virtue, to render them re-
spected bv their subjects.

It is, notwithstanding, veiy easy to distinguish error from truth. Truth is a natural
light, which shines of itself througlioiit the whole earth, because it springs from God.
Error is an artificial light, which needs to be fed incessantly, and which can never he-
universal, Ijecanse it is nothing more than the work of man. Truth is useful to all
men ; error is profitable but to a few, and is hurtful to the generality, because in-
dividual interest, when it separates itself from it, is inimical to general interest.

Purticidav care should be taken not to confound fiction with error. Fiction is the
veil of truth, whilst error is its phantom; and the former has been often invented to
dissipate t!ic latter. But, however innocent it may be in its ])rinciple, it becomes
dangerous when it assumes llie leading quality of error ; that is to say, when it is
turnetl to the particular prolit of anv set of men."

The christian religion answers exactly to this description of error, in every particu-
lar. It has been " fed inressaiitly" for upwards of eighteen hundred years; millions
upon millions have been expended on its priests to pro,)agrite it, and it is slid far from
being universal. According to Bellamy's history of all Religions ; (S eight hundred
millions ofsouls, wliiili the world is supposed to coniain, " one hundred and eighty-three
milli:jns only are christians. One hundred and thirty millions are Mahometans.
Three millions are Jews, and four hnndreii and eighty-.«even millions are Pagans.

Is not this a convincing proof that Christianity cannot be true 1 Kit had been
divinely in>pired,and God had actually visited this earth, for the purpose of teaching
it to man, would it not, long before this time, have exteniled tiaoiighout the world '!
It is the work of man, and therefore can never become universal.

Ministers of the gospel, instead of teaching the principles of moral virtue, which
would render them useful to their fellow men, are almost incessantly inculcating their
peculiar anrl favorite dogmas : Wishing to ma!;e religion to consist in what it does
not, in the belief of unintelligible creeds, in order to render the subject complex, that
their preaching might l.'e thought the more necessary to explain it.

A great portion of these ministers, moreover are mere boys ; who, after learning
a little Greek and Latin, set up the trade of preaching ; and anathematise all who
do not submissively bow to their dictation. It is lamentable to see decrijied age hob-
bling after such teachers in search of the road to heaven. One grain of common
sense would save them all that trouble.

Although the injuiy, resulting from the heavy contributions required for the support
of Christianity, is not, perhaps, so great as that arising from the demoralizing eftects of
substituting nonsensical creeds for moral virtue, yet these expenditures are serious
evils.

By a work lately published, relative to the consumption of wealth by the clergy, it
nppears, that the clergy of Great Britain alone receive annually, the enormous sum of
8,896,000 pounds sterling, which is divided among 18,400 clergymen ; but very un-
equally. Bishop Watson gets, for his share of the booty, £7,000 a year, which one
woidd think, was sufficient to induce him to vindicate the christian religion, or any
other, etj\ially |)roductive.*

The primate Lord J. Beresford, archbishop of Armagh, has above 63,000 acres of
land, of which more than 50,000 are arrable. Ilis grace is a man in middle life, and
of a healthy constitution. Suppose him to run his life against the leases let by his
predecessor, he would have the power of ruining perhaps a hundred families, and ob-
taining for himself a rack rent of not less than £70,000 or £80,000 per annum.

The see of Dublin has upwards of 20,000 acres. Much of this being near tlie me-
tropolis, must be considered as of extraordinary value.

But every thing is eclipsed by Derry ; there we have 94,000 Irish acres appropri-
ated to my lord the bishoii — little short of 150,000 English acres ! and should his

* Dr. Franklin, in a letter to Dr. Price, (1780) speaking of the religious tests, in-
corporated into the constitution of Massachusetts, observes, "If ctiristian preachers
had continued to teach as Christ and his apostles did, without salaries, and as the
Quakers now do, I imagine tests would never have existed; for I think they were
invented not so much to secure religion itself as the emolument cf it. When a re-
ligion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself,
and God does not take care to support it, so that its professors are obliged to call for
the help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one." Religiou*
teats have been abrogated in Massachusetts by the late revision of its constitution.

6 INTRODUCTION.

lordship at itic beginning of his incumliency, have thought fit to run his life against
the tenants, lie would now, at the expiration of twenty years, possi-ss a larger rent
roll than anv subject in the worM. Yet it was this very see which begged assistanct
towards repairing its own cathedral !

By the Almanach du clergy du France for 1823, it appears that there are fifty-foui
bishops and archbishops, already consecrated, out of the eighty France is to have.
There are, also, already, 85,676 priests in activity, exclusive of missionaries, and 50,934
is tlie number the Ijishops judge necessary to complete the Army of the Church — 2,031
are, moreover, pensioned. 'I'hen, in the schools aiiti at their different colleges, there
are 29,379 youths preparing for clerical duties. The revenue of the priests even now
amounts to '28,000,000 francs, t-xdusive of sums destined to repair the churches, and
other ecclesiastical services, which, amounting to 1,500,000 francs, will also pass
tlirough their hands, and exclusive of the sums collected by the missionaries, and con-
tributed by the communes, both of which are very considerable. From the same
book, it appears that since 1802, the legacies and gifts received by the church, and
held in Mortmain, aiuount to 13,388,554 francs, giving an annual re\euMe, after al)-
stracting from this sum many church ornaments, of 4.50,000 francs. iH this sum, no
less tlian 2,332,554 francs were contributed within the last year.

There are in Rome, 19 cardinals, 27 bishops, 14.50 priests, 1532 monks, 1464 friars,
and 332 seminarists. The population of Rome, in 1821, without reckoning the Jews,
amounted to 146,000 souls.

Among the evils entailed upon mankind by establishing a religion that requires tl>e
renunciation of reason, hypocrisy holds a conspicuous place, as the most pernicious in
its effects on society. It lowers the ilignity of man ; it checks the progress of the
human mind, by smothering tliat frank and liberal communication of thought, which
leads to improvement ; in short, it destroys all confidence among friends the most in-
timate. " If," says La Bruyere, " I many an avaricious woman, she will take care
of my money ; if a gambler, she may win ; if a learned woman, slie may instruct me;
if a vixen, she will teach me patience ; if a co(|uette, she will take pains to please ;
but if I many a hypocrite that affects to bo religious, (une devote) what can I expect
from her who tries to deceive even her (Jod, auil who almost deceives herself."

The clergy are fond of attributing all the calamities, incident to liiuuun nature, to
supernatural iulluencc. Not, it is presumed, because they bclioyc what they ))rctend
but on account of the reputation it gives them for cj'traorcUiwnj pielt/. Thus in the
.sea-port towns even of the United States, which have been alllicled with yellow
fever, I havt! observed, that some of i\w\r clergy considered it as a special judgment of
God, arising from the jiassion of the i5(>o|)le for thn.'atrical exhibitions, &c. And fast-
ings and prayers were resorted to, to appiMse the wrath of the .Mmiglily. But these
doctors of divinity, it i-s said, when attacked with yellow fever, or any other se-
rious complaint, immediately em|)lov a physical doctor to cin-c them ; which is sufB-
cient evidence that they do not l)elieve tli(-ir own doctrine ; for it wmilil be vain, and
impious, to attempt to cure those whom Cod intended t(j destroy. lui-alculable evils
may result from the promulgation of this doctrine : Because those wlio have faith in
it, may, as is the fact in some countries, refuse to lake medicine in case of sickness,
and thereby sacrifice their own lives to folly and superstition.

The Emperor of China, however, fully agrees with these christian doctors in his con-
ceptions of supernatiual iulerference in passing evenls ; and takes the same means to
a.»suage the wrath of the Cods, as appears by the following statement of what took
place in conse<(uence of a hurricane and drought at Peking and Fe-che-le jirovince.

On the 13th of May, 1818, there w;is a violent limricaiie at Peking, which produced
much alarm among all sorts of peopk;. The Fmperor piddished an edict on the sul)-
ject, ill wliicii he declares he was extremely frightened. He savs " it rained dust,"
and produced such profounil darkness that nothiiig could be sei'n without a candle.
It was not so \ ioleiil how<-\er ;is to produce any serious iiijiirv, and the apprehensions
ot the [)eople, and paiticnlailv of the F.mperor, proceeded from the belief that such
phenouieiia are punishiuenls for some niisiiianagement among the rulers of tlie country.
The Emperor gi\rs a long list of the evil effects of imjiroper measures in governing,
and exhorts his oflicers to join him in self-examination to find out the true cause of this
calamity. In another flocument he blames the imperial asMouomiTS for not foreseeing
and foretelling the hurri<ane, instead of flattering hiin as they had formerly done,
with the hope of tran(|uillity ; and to calculate with accuracy the intenli^ms of lienvcn.
He alsti despatched a me.s.senger towards the south-east, where the storm arose, as ha
is confident there must have been some act of oppression committed in that direction.

INTRODUCTION. 7

The MiUlionialical Board sent up tlic result of their Irarneil rrsearclies on tlie siil>-
ject, hut ileclineii to express any opinion i>( tlieir own. If it iiiid coiitiiKied a whole
day it would have indicated some disagreement between the Eiupeior and his JMinis-
ters ; also a great drought and srarcity of grain. If hut for an hour, pestilence in
tlie south-west, and half the popidation diseased in the souili-e;ist. Jf the wind had
blown tlie sand, and moved stones with a lou.i noise, inun lations, &c.

Tlie Gazette of the same dale contains a paper in wliieli the Emperor expresses
much grief at a lon^ dr(<ught at I'c-che-le province. He had sent his sons to fist, pray
and sacrifice to heaven, earth, and the god of the wind, hut this liad ohtained onlv ;i
slight shower. His Majesty wrote a prayer himself, and appointed a day to go with
liij brother, and two more persons, to sacrifice; the Emperor hi heaven, his hrother
to the earth, the first n[ their companions to the diviniiy that rules the jiassing year,
and the second to the god of the winds. A day was also apjiointed for a geneial fist
and sacrifice, on which liie kings, nobles, ministers of state, attending olfueis, sol-
diers, and servants, were to appear in a peculiar cap and garment a^ a mark of
penitence. The two sons of his Majesty were to sacrifice at the same time in two
other ])laces.

Such idle vagaries ought to be eradicated from the mind of man, that he may con-
template his true predicament in nature, provide for liis wants and ward<^(f ap|)roacli-
ing danger. It is to he hoped that time is not fir distant when this happy event will
he realized, especially in that portion of the globe wlicie science is generally dilliiseJ
It recjuires only the honest and hold co-operation of men of learning to effect it.

As the opinions of great and good men, provided they have no interest to uphold
puperstilion, ought to have weight on the minds of those less informed, I shall here
subjoin the brief sentiments of a few celebrated characters, in support of Mr. Paiiie's
infidelity.

DR. FRANKLIN.
Letter from Dr. Franklin to the Rev. George IVIdtvfield.

?Hlt,ADELPHIA, JUME 6tll, 1753.

Dear Sik,

I received your kind letter of the 2d inst. and am glad to hear tUat yoti mcrease i>i
strength — I hope you will continue mending until yon recover your former health "hnj
fiiinness. Let me know whether you still use the cold bath, and vvliat effect it has.
As to the kindness you mention, I wish it could have lieea of more serious service to
you; hut if il had, the only thanks that I should desire, are, that yon wouhl always
be ready to serve any other person that may need your assistance ; and so let good
offices go round ; for mankind are all of u family. For my own part, when I am
employed in , serving others, I do not look upon myself as conferring favors, hut aa
paying debts. In my travels and since my settlement, I have receiveil much kindness
from men, to whom I shall never have an opportunity of making the least direct re-
turn ; and numberless mercies from God, who is infinitely above being benefited by
our services. These kindnesses from men, I can, theietbre, only return to their fel-
low men ; and I can only show my gratitude to God by a readiness to help his other
children, and my brethren, for I do not think that thanJvs and compliments, though re-
peated weekly, can discharge our real obligations to each other, and much less, to our
Creator.

You will see, in this, my notion of good works, that I am far from expecting to merit
heaven by them. By lieaven, we understand a state of happiness, infinite in degree
a!id eternal in duration. I can do nothing to deserve such a reward. He that, for
giving a draught of water to a thirsty person, should expect to be paid with a good
j>lantation, would be modest in his demands compared with those who think they de-
serve heaven for the little good they do on earth. Even the mixed imperfect pleas-
ures we enjoy in this worUl, are rather from God's goodness than our merit ; how
much more so the happiness of heaven 1 for my part, I have not the vanity to think
I deserve it, the folly to expect or the ambition to desire it, but content myself in %\\h-
initting to the disposiil of that God who made me, who has hitherto preserved and
l)lessed me, and in whose fatherly goodness I may well confide, that he never will
make me miserable, and that the allliction I may at any time suffer, may tend to my
benefit.

The faith you mention has, doubtless, its use in the world. I do not desire to see
ft diminished, nor would I desire to lessen it in any man, hut I wish it were more
productive of good works than I have generally seen it. 1 mean real gnod works,
works of kindness, charity, mercy mil piildic spirit; not holy day-keeping, s(M-m in-
hearing or reading ; performing ch'.irch cerein'.niis, or niaUing long pia\ers, lillej

8 INTRODUCTION

with flatteries and compliments, despised even by wise men, and much less capable
of pleasing the Deity.

The woi!-hip of God is a duty — the hearing and reading may be iisefid ; hut if men
rest in hearing and praying, as too many do, it is as if the tree shonld vahie itself on
Ixjiiig watered an.l putting fcjrtli leaves though it never pro li\ce;i any fi'iiit.

Your gooil miLster thmiglit much less of tliese outward apijearances th:in many of his
modern disciples. He prifcrn-d the do(!rs of the word to the hearers ; the son that
seemiuijlv n^fused to obey his fuh'T and yet perf )ruied his couuiian Is, to hiui that
professed his reailiness but mgleeted the work ; the heretical but charitable Samari-
tan, to the iincharitaUle ijiit orthodox priest ami sanctified Levite, and those who gave
food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, and raiment to the naked, entertainment to
llie stranger, and never heard of his tiaine, he declares siiall, in the last day, be ac-
ce|)ted ; when those who cry. Lord, Lord, who value themselves on their faith, though
great enough to perform miracles, but have neglected good works, shall be rejected,
lie profi'sset^ that he came not to call the righteous, hut sinners to rei)entance, which
implied his modest opinion that there were some in his time so good that they need
i,"it hi'ar him even for improvement, but now-a-days we hava scarcely a little parson
that does not think it the dnty of every man within his reach to sit under his petty
tninistration, and that whoever omits this oflends God — I wish to such more humility,
and to you, health anil liapi)iness.

Being your friend and servant,

BENJAMIN FRANICLIN.

Extract of a letter from the same to Ezra StiicB, President of Yale College.

Philadklphia, March 9, 1790.
R,rv. AND Dear Sir,

You desire to know something of mv religion. It is the first time I have been que»-
tior.;' I upon it. ]?ut I cannot lake yoitr cm iosity amiss, an I sliall endeavor in a few
words to gratify it. Here is niy creed. I believe in one God, the d'ator of the
Fniverse. That he governs it by his Providi^nce. That ho onglit to be worshipped.
Tliiit the most acceptable service we ron ler him is doing good to his otlicr children.
'I'hat the soul of man is i;iim ntal, an I will be treated wit'.i justice in another life re-
Epe(Ming its conduct in this. These I take to be tile fimdamental points in all sound
religicm, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them. As to
Jesus of iN'azareth, my opiniipii of wimin you part inui.irly desire, I think the system of
morals, ainl his religion, as he left tlieiu to us, the best the world ever saw, or is like
to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, audi have, with
most of the present dissenters in F.nglaiid, some doubts as to his divinity ; though it is
a (|uestion I do not d<igmati/.(! upon, having never studied it, and thiidi it needless to
busy myself with it nnw, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth
with less tridible.* I see no harm however in its being believed, if that belief has the
good consc(|uence, as probably it has, of making his dnctrines more respecteil, and
more observed, especially iis I do nnl perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by
distinguishing the believers in his government of the world with any particular marks
of his displeasure. I shall oidy add, respecting myself, that having experienced the
goodness of thiit Being, in conducting me prosperously through a long lite, I have no
doubt of its continuance in the next, though without "the smallest conceit of meriting
sucli goodness. My sentiments on this head you will see in the copy of an old letter
inclosed,! whi( h I wrote in answer to one from an old religionist, whom 1 had re-
lieved in a paralytic case by electricity, ami who l)eing afraid I should grow pruud
uj)on it, sent me his serious, though rather impertinent caution.

Widi great and sincere esteem and aft'ection, I p.m, &c.

BIvNJA.MLN FRANKLIN.
REMARKS.

As Dr. Franklin evidently dislx;lieves in any l)enefit to lie gained in a future state
by faith in the mysteries of the christian religion, and as tlie litde influence it may

• The Doctor had indeed deferred an examinati(m into the divinity of Jesus to a
vorj' late hour ; for he says in tiie same letter, " I am now in mv 85di year, .ind very
infirm." He died the 17th of April following.

t Supposed to refer to the foregoing letter to G 'orge Whitefield.

INTRODUCTION. " 9

have in producing good works, are evidently over-balanced by the evils produced by
it, no good reasons can be urged for its cultivation. The objections to this faith are,
that it creates pride, uncharitableness and persecution. Whoever believes that he
knows perfectly the will of God, naturally despises all others not favored with the
lilie divine grace. He becomes a contemptible despot, prepared to commit any art
of outrage against unbelievers in his creed, in order the more eftectually to ingratiate
himself with tlie divinity he worships. He takes up the cause of God as his own ajf-
fair, and acts accordingly.

Those who call tliemaelves orthodox believers of the present day, would do well to
imitate the example of the Roman Emperor, Titus, who, in his edict, occasioned by
die importunities of the orthodox of that time for the punishment of christians for
unbelief, observed, " I am very well assured, that tiie Gods themselves will take earn,
tliat this kind of men shall not escape, it being much more their concern, than it can
be yours, to punish those that refuse to worship them."

To show Dr. Franklin's opinions more fully upon this subject, I shall make a few
more extiacts from hie writings. In a letter to B. Vaughan, (1788) he says, " Re-
member me affectionately to good Dr. Price and to the hon(?st iieretic Dr. Priestley. I
do not call him honest by way of distinction : for I think all the heretics 1 have
known have been virtuous men- They have the virtue of fortitude, or they wuulj not
venture to own their heresy ; and they cannot afford to be deficient in any of tiie otlier
virtues, as that would ^ive advantage to their many enemies; and they have not, like
orthodox sinners, such a. number of friends to excuse or justify them. Do not how-
ever mistake me. It is not to my good friend's heresy that I impute his honestv.
On the contrary, 'tis his honesty that has brought upon him the character of heretic."

Again, in a letter to Mrs. Partridge, (1788) he observes, " You tell me our poor
friend, Ben Kent is gone, I hope to the regions of the blessed ; or at least to some
place where souls are prepared for those regions ! I found my hope on this, that
though not so orthodox as you and I, he was an honest man, and had his virtues.
If he liad any hypocrisy, it was of that inverted kind, with which a man is not so
bad as he seems to be, And with regard to future bliss, I cannot help imagining that
multitudes of the zealously orthodox of different sects, who at the last day may flock
together, in hopes of seeing each other damned, will be disappointed, and obliged to
rest content with their own salvation."

In another letter, addressed to Mrs. Mecom, his sister, (1758) he says, " 'Tis pity
dial good works, among some sorts of people, are so little valued, and good words
admired in tlieir stead . I mean seemingly pious discourses, instead of humane be-
nevolent actions. Those they almost put out of countenance, by calling morality rotten
morality — righteousness ragged righteousness, and even lilthy rags — and when you
mention virtue, pucker up their noses; at the same time that the} eagerly snuff up an
emj)tj canting harangiin, as if it was a posey of the choicest flowers."

In a letter to * * * (1784) he observes, '^ There are several thmgs in the Old Tes-
tament impossible to he given by divine inspiration ; such as the approbation ascrib-
ed to the angel of the Lord, of that abominably wicked and detestable action of Jael,
'he wife of Heber, the Keuite."

THOM.A.S JEFFERSON.

Extract of a letter from Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States,
to Dr. Prikstley, upon his " Comparative View o/Socrates and Jesds."

Washington, April 9, 1803.
Df.ar Sir,

While on a short visit lately to Monticcllo, I received from you a copy of your Com-
parative View of Socrates and Jesus, and I avail myself of the first moment of leisure
after my return to acknowledge the pleasure I had in the perusal, and the desire
it excited to see you take up the subject on a more extensive scale. — In consequence
of some conversations with Dr. Rush in the years 1798 — 99, I had promised some day
to write him a letter, giving him my view of the Christian system. I have reflected
often on it since, and even sketched the outlines in my own mind. I should nrst take
n general view of the moral doctrines of the moat lemarkable of the ancient piiiloso-
phers, of whose etl.ics we have sufficient information to make an estimate : sav, of
Pytliagoras, Epicurus, Epio'.etus, Socrates, Cicero, Seneca, Antoninus. I should

10 - INTRODUCTION.

do justice to the branches of morality thoy have treated well, but point out the in»-
portuncc of those in wliich they are deficient. I should then take a view of the deism
and ethics of the Jews, and show in what a degraded state tlicy were, and the ne-
cessity tiiey presented of a reformation. I should proceed to a view of the life, charac-
ter, and doctrines of Jesus, v.ho, sensible of the incorrectness of their ideas of the Deity,
and of morality, endeavored to bring them to the principles of a pure deism, and
juster notions of the attributes of God, to reform their moral doctrines to the stand-
ard of reason, justice, and philanthropy, and to inculcate the belief of a future state.
This view would purposely omit the question of his divinity, and even of his inspira-
tion. To do him justice, it would be necessary to remark the disadvantages his doc-
trines have to encounter, not having been committed to writing by himself, but by
the most unlettered of men, by memory, long after they had heard them from liim,
when much was forgotten, much misunderstood, and presented in vei"y paradoxical
shapes. Yet such are the fragments remaining, as to show a master workman, and
that his system of morality was the most benevolent and sublime probably that has
been ever taught, and more perfect than those of any of the ancient philosophers. His
character and doctrines have received still greater injury from those who pretend to
be his spiritual disciples, and who have disfigured and sophisticated his actions and
precepts from views of personal interest, so as to induce the unthinking part of man-
kind to throw off the whole system in disgust, and to pass sentence as an impostor on
»he most innocent, t!ie most benevolent, the most eloquent and sublime character that
lias ever been exhibited to man. This is the outline ; but I have not the time, and
still less the information wliich the subject needs. It will therefore rest with me in
contemplation only.

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Letter from the same to IVilliam Canby.
Sir,

I have duly received your favor of August 27th ; am sensible of the kind intentions
from which it flows, and truly thankful for them, the more so, as thoy could only be
the result of a favorable estimate of mv public course. During a long life, as much
devoted to study as a fiilhful trans.ictinn of the trusts comiiiiltod to me would permit,
no oly'ect has occupied more of my consideration than our relations with all the beings
around us, our duties to them and our future prospects. After hearing and reading
every thing which probably can be suggested concerning thcin, I have formed the Iwst
judgment I <:ould, as to the coiuse they prescribe ; and in the due observance of that
course, I have no recollections which give me uneasine.-s. An elociuent prcrxcher of
your religious society, Richard l\Iott, in a discoiMse of much uuctiou and pathos, is
said to have exclaimed aloud to his congregation, that lie did not believe there was a
Quaker, Presbyterian, Metho(li;*t or I5a|)tist in Heave. i — iiaving paused to give liis
audience time to stare and to wonder — (lu! said) that in Heaven, (io<l knew no distino.
tiou, but considered all good men, as his children and as lirclincn of ilie same familv.
I Ijelieve with the (iuaker preacher, that he who steadily observes those oionil
precepts in which all religions concur, will never be questioned at the gales of Heav-
en, as to the dogmas in which they differ ; that on entering there, all lliesc are left 1)C-
hind us : the Aristideses and ("atos, I'cinis, and TiHulsons, Presbyterians and Papists,
will find themselves united in all principles which are in concert w ilh the reason of tlic
su()renie mind. Of all the systems of morality, ancier.l or modern, which have come
tnider my olwervation, none appears to me so pure as tliat of Jesus. He who follows
this steadily, n(!ed not, I think, U; uneasy, although he cannot comprehend the subttc-
tii* and mysli^ries erected on his doctrines, by iliose who calling themselves his spe-
cial followers and favotnitcs, would make him come into the world to l.iv snares for
all undfii:i""<li"s« I'ut theirs ; these inelaplivsi<'al heads, usurping the judgment seat
oftiod, denoimce as his enemies, all who cannot perceive the geometrical logic of
Euclid in the ilemonstrations of .St. .Athanasius, that three are one, and one is three,
and »rt that three are not one, nor the one three. In all essential |)oiulH, you and I
are of the same religion, and I am too old to go into intpiiries and changes as to the
i^ncssentials. Repeating therefore my th.iiikfuhiess for llic; kind concern vou have
oecn so good ;is to express, 1 salute you w illi friendship and biuilicrly love.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Monticcllo, September 17lh, 1813.

INTRODUCTION. U

BONAPARTE.

By the Report of Las Casa?, the auihenticity of whirh is not doubted, Bonaparte,
who, whatever may be thought of Isis goodness, is allowed by all to be a great man,
made the following remarks on religion. " Every thing proclaims the exLstenre of a
Gcd ; that cannot be questioned ; but all religions are evidently the work of men.
Why are there so many 1 Why has not ours always existed ] \\'hy does it consider
itself excliKively the right one ? What becomes, in that case, of all the virtuous men
who have gone before us 1 Why does these religions ojipose and exterminate one
another 1 Why has this been the case ever and every where 1 Because men are ever
men ; because priests have ever and every v\ here introduced fraud and falsehood."
He said, " that his incredulity did not proceed from perverseness or from licentiousness
of mind, but from the strength of his reason. Yet," added he, " no man can an-
swer for what will happen, particularly in his last moments. At present, 1 certainly
believe that I sliall die without n confe.ssor. I am assuredly very far from being an
atheist, but I cannot believe all that I am taught in spite of my reason, without being
false and a hypocrite."

The bare mention of the possibility that he might, before he died, confess his sins,
with a view of obtaining pardon from a frail mortal like himself, was unworthy of
the character of Bonaparte. But it exemplifies in the strongest manner the almost
unconquerable power of habits and prejudices acquired in early life. If, at the time
the above expressions were made, there still remained in the great mind of Bonaparte
novae lirgering vestiges of the contemptible prejudices which he had imbibed from his
nurse and father confessor in childhood, what can be expected from the multitude
who never think 1 How important then is it, that the minds of youth should be prop-
erly directed J — that they should be taught their true condition in nature; — that their
present and future happiness depends, not on confessions to a priest, but on uniform
practice of moral virtue. If confessions are depended on, we may be assured, tliat
morals will be neglected.

LORD ERSKINE.

The following opinion of the manner in which mankind will be judged in a future
State must be concurred in by every rational being, not under clerical influence. It is
extracted from the speech of the famous Irish barrister, Erskine, on the liberty of the
press, in the trial of Stockdale for an alleged libel against the parliament.

" Every human tribunal ought to take care to administer justice, as we look here-
after to have justice administered to ourselves. Upon the principles on which the
Attorney-General prays sentence upon my client — God have mercy upon us ! — For
which of I's can present, for omniscient examination, a pure, unspotted, and faulllesa
course. But I humbly expect that the benevolent author of our being will judge lis
as I have been pointing out for your example. Holding up the great volume of our
lives in his hands, and regarding tlie general scope of them. If he discovers benevo-
lence, charity and good will to man beating-in the heart, where hfi alone can look ; —
if he finds tliat our conduct, though often forced out of the path by our infirmities, has
been in general well directed ; his all-searching eye will assuredly never pursue us
into those little corners of our lives, much less will his justice select them for punish-
ment, witlioutthe general context of our existence, by which faults may be sometimes
found to have grown out of virtues, and veiy many of our heaviest offences to ha\e
been grafted by human imperfection upon the best and kindest of our aflections. No,
believe me, this is not the course of divine justice. If the general tenor of a man's
conduct be such as I have represented it, he may walk through the shadow of death,
witli all his faults about him, with as much cheerfulness as in the common paths of
life ; because he knows, that instead of a stern accuser to expose liefore the Author
of his nature those frail passages, which like the scored matter in the book before
you, chequers the volume of the brightest and beet spent life, his mercy will obscure
tltcm from (be eye of his purity, and our repentance blot them out for ever."

MR. OWEN.

This gentleman is not so nnivpr»«lly known as to renc'er his opinions .10 imposing
as those already quoted, but liP ti.is acquired such celebrity for jihilaMihiopj la

12 INTRODUCTION.

his extr;K)rilinary exertions to meliorate tlie condition of tlie poor, in which charitable
■work he is now zealously engaged, that I am induced to give his rational views r^
specting religion, in answer to a correspondent of tlie Limerick Chronicle.

" I'or nearly forty years," he says, " 1 have studied the religious systems of the
world, with tlie most sincere desire to discover one that was devoid of error ; one to
whicii my mind and soul could consent ; but the more I have examined the faiths and
practices which tiiey have produced, the more error in each has been made manifest
to me, and 1 am now prepared to say that all, without a single exception, contain too
much error to be of any utility in the present advanced state of the human mind.
There are truths in each religion, as well as errors in all, but if I have not been too
much prejudiceil by early education and surrounding circumstances, to judge impar-
tially boluecn them, there are more valuable truths in the Christian Scrijitures tlian
in ollii IS — but a religion to be |)ure and undcfded, and to produce (he prouer effect
upon the life and conduct of every lumian being, and to become universal, nrnst be so
true, that all who run may read, and so reading may fully comprehend. A religion
of liiis character must be devoid of forms, ceremonies and mysteries, for these con-
Etitiite the errors of all the existing systems, and of all those v\liich have hitherto cre-
ated anger, and produced violence and bloodshed throughout society. A religion de-
voiil of error will not depend for its support upon any name whatever. No name,
not even Deity iltclf, cun make truth into falsehood. — A pure and genuine religion,
tlicrefore, will ncjt require for its support, or for its imiversal promulgation by the
human race, any name whatever, nor ought, except the irresistible truth which it
glial! contain. Such religion will possess whatever is valual)le in each, and exclude
whatever is erroneous in all, and in due time, a religion of this character, freed from
every inconsistency, shall be promulgated. Then will the world be in possession of
principles which, without any exception, produce corresponding practices, tlien all
shall see, face to face, clearly and distinctly, and no longer through a glass, darkly.
In tlie mean time, however, while the dangers shall be gradually working in the
minds of those who have been c<)m|;elled to receive error mixed with tnith, it is in-
tended that no violence shall be oflered to the conscience of any one, and that in the
proposed new villages, full provisions shall be made for the performance ol religious
worship, according to llie practice of the country in w hich the villagcc shall be situated.

ELIAS HICKS.

Elias Ilicks, n celebrated Quaker preacher, at New-York, in a letter addressed to
the Kev. Dr. Shoemaker, dated .S<1 mo. 31, 182.3, speaking of the atonement, and
those who believe in it, writer, " Hurety, is it possible that any rational being, that
has aiiv ri<.'ht sense of jii.>tice and mercy, would l)e willing to accept fiTgiveness of his
sins on su( h terms ? Vv'<iuld lie not go f<i| ward, and oiler himself wholly uj), to suflcT
all the penalties due to his crimes, rather than tlie innocent should sufi'er 1 Nay, was
he so hardy as to acknowledge a willingness to be saved tliioMgh »iuch a medium,
would it not prove that he stood in diiect opposition to every piincii'le of justice and
honestv, of luercv and love, and show himself a poor seKi.sli creature, iniwoilhy of
notice?" 'J'owiirds the conclusion cf his letter, he says, " I inay now recommend
tlire to shake oft' all traditional views that thou hast imbilied from external I'vidence,
and turn tliv mind to llir light w ithin, as the only true teacher ; and wait patiently
for its iiistiiictions, and it will teach thee more than m<-n or books can do, aixl lead
thee to a clearer sight and sense of what thou desirest to know, than I have word*
clcarh to convey to thee."

In his di.-courscs t!ie following sentiments havelecn noted and published ; " Tliat tlie
dralh vf Jems Christ was no more to us than the dcatJi of any other ^ood man ;
that he merely performed his part on earth as a faithful son. just as any other man
had done; that he did not believe any thing coniaiiicd in the Scriptures mi'rely lx>-
cause it was in them ; that although the miracles might have been a proof to those
who !-aw tlicm, yet they could be no proof to us who did not see thiin. Is it possible,
•aid he, that there is any p.erson so ignorant or siip<i>litious, as to believe, tliat there
ever was on etirth such a place as the garden of Kilen. or that Ailain and I".\e wore
renllv put into it, and turned out of it for eating an apple 1 My friends, it is all an
oll.-oiy."

Ulr. !lick.->, I undrrstand, is far advanced in life, and is a great favourite, as a
preacher, not only among Ids own sect, but with odiers of different denominations.

INTRODUCTION. IS

He is said to be a man of the strictest morals. His doctrine is void of trifling pueril-
ities, and disgusting hypocrisy, the greatest impediment to human improvement. It
is plain, nonest, common sense. Such as one would suppose would be adopted by all
people, not burdened with an expensive priesthood. — H,n-ed priests, no doul)f, consid-
er themselves in a measure Vxjund to deal out to their hearers a groat deal of school
divinity, consisting oi" perplexing metaphysics, in order to convince tjiem that they
get the wortli of their money. Plain morality would not command a high price
among those who are in search of mysteries, miracles and spiritual nonentities.

Religionists seem to think that there can be no religion unattended witli mystery
and miracle. They require a name to uphold their religion ; and the person who
bears it must have performed miracles to entitle him to their respect. The simple
principles of moral virtue have no charms for them. Their religion must be involved
in clouds and darkness, to make it difficult to be understood, in order to enhance the
merit of believing it. Such a scheme, as they call it, of religion is well adapted to
priestcralt, because it gives the high priests of the establishment an opportunity to
play off a sort of necromancy to deceive and gull the multitude. It would require no
ministers, with high salaries, to explain the plain creed of Dr. Franklin. It does
not require, like complicated and mysterious religions to be taught, as a school boy is
taught grammar.

The morality contained in what is called the gospel, unconnected with the Old
Testament, is unexceptionable. It is the doctrine of Deism ; as Dr. Tindal has
shown, in his work, entitled, " Christianity as old as the Creation, or the Gospel a
republication of the religion of nature." The same sentiments, however, had been
promulgated long before the gospel had existence. Confucius, the Chinese phloso-
pher, who was born 551 years l>efore Christ, said, " Human nature came to us from
heaven pure and perfect ; but in process of time, ignorance, the passions, and evil
examples have corrupted it. — All consists in restoring it to its primitive beauty ; and
to be perfect, we must reascend to that point we have fallen from. Obey heaven, and
follow tlie orders of Him who gOTcrns it. Love your neighbour as yourself; let ycoir
reason, and not your senses be the rule of your conduct ; for reason will teach you to
tliink wisely, to speak prudently, and to behave yourself worthily on all occasions.
Do to another what you would lie should do unto you ; and do not unto another what
you would should not be done unto you ; thou only needest this law alone ; it is the
foundation and principle of all tne rest.

" Desire not tlie death of thme enemy ; tl>ou wouldst desire it in vain ; his life ia
in the hands of Heaven.

" Acknowledge tliy benefits by the return of other benefits, but never revenge in-
juries."

In tlie precepts of Phocylides, written 540 years before Christ, we fiad the
following : " Let no favour or affection bias thy judgment ; reject not the poor ; nor
judge any man rashly ; for if thou doest, God will judge thee hereafter."

" Give not thy alms to the poor with grudging, nor put him off till to-morrow j
have compassion on tlie man that is banished, and be eyes to tlie blind."

" Show mercy to those that are shipwrecked ; for the sea, like fortune, is a fair,
but fickle mistress. Comfort the man that is dejected ; and be a friend to him that
has no one to help him. We are all liable to misfortunes, up to day, and down to-
morrow."

In what are called the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, who died 497 years be-
fore Christ, we read as follows, " Do not an ill thing, either in company, or alone ;
but of all respect yoarself nrst ; that is, first pay the duty which is due to yourself, to
your honour and to your conscience j nor let any foreign regard vaake you deviate
from this faith."

" Presume not to sleep till you have thrice ran over the actions of the past day.
Examine yourself, where nave I lieen 1 What have I done 1 Have I omitted any
good action 1 Then weigh all, and correct yourself for what you have done amiss,
and rejoice in what you have done well."

" Whatever evils thou mayest undergo, bear them patiently, endeavoring to discov-
er a remedy. And let this reflection console thee, that fate does not distribute much
of evil to good men.

" Men apply the art of reasoning to good and bad purposes; listen, Uierefore, With
caution, and be not hasty to admit or reject. If any one assert an untruth, arm thy-
eelf with patience, and be silent.

" When Uiis habit has become famdiar to thee, thou wilt perceive the constitution
of the immortal Gods, and of mortal men ; even the great extent of being, and in

14 INTRODUCTION.

what manner it exists. Thou wilt perceive tliat nature in Iier operations is uniform,
and thou will expect only what is possible. Thou wilt perceive tiiat nuinkind will-
ingly draw upon themselves evil. They neither see nor understand what it is wise
to prefer ; and wlien entangled, are ignorant of the means of escape. Such is the
destiny of man. 'I'hcy are subjected to evils without end, and are agitated incessant-
Iv, like rolling-stones. A fatal contention ever secretly pursues them, which they
neither endeavor to subdue, nor yielil to

" Great Jove ! Father of iMen ! O frct^ them from those evils, or discover to theiu
the demon they employ ! But be of good cheer, for the race of man is divine. Na-
ture discovers to dicui lier hidden mysteries, in which if liiou art interested, and at-
tain this knowledge, thuu wilt obtain with ease, all I enjoin ; and having healed thy
60id, tiioii wilt preserve it from evil.

" Abstain, moreover, from those unclean and foul meats, which are forbidden,
keeping thy body pure, and tliy snid free.

" Consiiler all things well, goveiiiing thyself by reason, and settling it in the up-
permost ])lace. And ivhtn than art divi.ited of thy viortal body, and arrived in
the most pure athcr, tliou shall he exalted among the immortal Gods, be incor-
ruptible, and never more knoto death."

Laureni-e Stern.', in his t'oiai), says, " I had conceived, that to love our enemies
was a tenet peculiar to the (.'hristian religion, till I stumbled upon the same idea in
t!ie writings of that rogue IMaU)." And it seems that the ro^tie Pythagoras, as well
as I'lato and others, taught the vloctrine of immortality long before its promulgation
in the gospel, ahlioiigh the merit of it is ascribed exclusively to Jesus by many of his
followers.

Quotations to the same efTi'Ct might be made from the writings of Socrates, Plato,
Cicero, and othc-rs, who lived anteiior to the time of Jesus Christ. In fact, it seetna
apparent, that the moral sentiments contain(!il in the gospel, hiive been derived from
philosophers who lived at periods remote from the time of its promulgation. The
morals of Epictctits, Seneca, and Antoninus, whoin christians call heatiiens, are not
inferior to those of the gospel. AsiOMNUS observes, " It is the jieculiar excellence
of man to love even tin se who have oftended him. This you will be disposed to do,
if you reflect that the ofii-nder is allied to you ; that he did it through ignorance, and,
perhaps involuntarily ; and, moreover, that you will both soon go peaceably to your
graves. But alx)ve all, consider, that he has not really injured you, as he could not
render your mind, or governing part, the worse for his olVence.

"A man m,iy be more expert than you in the gynmastic exercises ; be it so ; vet ho
is not superior to you in the social virtues, in gcnti'osily, in modesty, in ])atience under
the accidents of lite, or Irnitv towards tlu; fciililcs of mankind."

Moral principirs arc the same in all countries, and at all times. Neither time nor
place can change them.

Although sects were formed under the names of some of the ancient philosophers,
which caused grtsit disputations among tlie disciples of the respective leaders, it does
not appear that they were carried on with such rancor towards each other, as those
which have distinguished the followers of men who have given names to various de-
nominations of christians. Among these, at least, reasim has been perverted by a
blind zeal to supptirt the favourite dogmas of spiritual guides, and cluistendoni has
been k<'pt in turmoil, fi;r IStM) years, by the ranglings and peisecutinus of sectarians.

When philosophers speak favourably of the nii>ralilv of the gospel, they are far
from vindicating the cruelties coinmitli^d in the name of its founder, or the arrogant
pretensions of its ministers. In fart, they evidently do it as a salvo against persecu-
tion for their unt)elief in its divinity, and their disapprobation of the vindictive spirit
of its supporters.

The following are the only books of note which arc esteemed by the various natiocs
of the earth :w of divine origin.

Shu-King, or sacred Ixiok, of the Chinese.

Yajin- \'eda,or holy lx)ok, of the East Indians.

Bible of the Cln'istians, and Koran of the Mahometans.

Which of tlies(! contain the best or most practical system of morals it miehtbe dif«
ficidt to determine. But, as the cause of cruellies in the destruction of the human
■pories, I will- venture to say, that the l^ible stands pre-eminent and unrivalled. Mil-
lioprff have lieen sarriliced, untkr l)olh the Jewish and Christian economy, with the
false and wicked pretext of honouring the Deity by the inforrement of ridicidons creeds,
rights and ceremonies. In the trilling and foolish affair of the molten calf alone, as
recorded in iJie 32d chap, of Exodus, about three thousand men are said to have been

INTRODUCTION, 15

pat to death to appease the pretended jealousy of the Supreme Creator of tlie Uni-
verse. This, and hundreds of otlier passages that inigiit be cited from the Bible, form
a striking contrast with tliat tolerant spirit of the Koran, in which it is said, " If God
had pleased, he had surely made you one people ; but he hath thought fit to give you
different laws, that he might try you in that which he hath given you respectively.
Therefore strive to excel each otlier in good works ; unto God shall you all return,
and then will he declare unto you that concerning which ye have diflbred." — Koran,
chap. 5.

I will liere insert a concise history of occurrences under the gospel dispensation in
Spain, as a sample of what has, and ever will take place, wherever fiiiiiisters of re-
ligion bear sway in government. This I take from a statement, wliidi has recently
appeared, of the number of victims to thai terrible engine of superstition, cruelly and
death, the Inquisition ; the bare recital of which chills the blood, and (ills the mind
with horrid images of suffering humanity under the most cxcrutiating tortures, which
awful depravity, disguised in the robes of religion, couUI invent. The table is ex-
tracted from a Critical History of that dreadful tribunal, by J. A. Lorentc, one of its
late secretaries, and may therefore be considered as indi.'putably authentic. It ex-
hibits a detailed list of the respective numbers who have suffered various kinds of
punishment and persecution in the Peninsula alone, independent of those who have
been its victims in other parts of the world, for a |;eriod of 356 years, viz. from 1452
to 1808, during which the Inquisition has existed, under the administration of 44 In-
quisitors General. Within that term it appears that in Spain ha\e been burnt 31,718,
died in prison or escaped by flight and were burnt in etiigy, 174,111, and suffered
other jnmishments, such as whipping, imprisonment, &c. 287,522, making a grand
total of 336,651. The greatest number of victims under any administration, was in
that of Torqucmada, the first Inquistor General, who presided from 1452 to 1499, a
.ong and bloody reign of 47 years, during which 8,800 victims were burnt, 6,400 died
or escaped by flight, and S0,094 suffered various other puuishi^ents ; being in the
whole, 105,294, or 2,240 per annum !

The use of this horrid instrument of slaughter was abolished by the Cortes ; but is
about to be reintlated imder the rule of the heaven-born Ferdinand. The consequen-
ces of wl'.ich mav be anticipated by the tenor of the following Decree, issued at 3Iad-
rJd, Oct. 13, 18:^3.

" In casting my eyes (says his Majesty) on the Most High who had 'deigned to
deliver me from so niany dangers, and to lead me back as it were by the hand among
my faithful subjects, I exjjerience a feeling of horror when I lecollect all the sacrifices,
all tl'.e crimes which the impious have dared to commit against the Sovereign Creator
of the Universe.

"The Ministers of Religion have been persecuted and sacrificed — die venerable
successor of St. Peter has been insulted — the teni-ples of the Lord profaned and des-
troyed— the Holy Gospel trodden under foot — lastly, the inestimable inheritance
which Jesus Christ left us, the right of his Holy Supper, to assure us of his love, and
of our eternal felicity, the sacred Hosts, have been trampled under foot. My soul
cannot be at rest till united to my beloved subjects, we sliall offer to God pious sac-
rifices tiiat he may deign to purify by his grace the soil of Spain from so many stains.
In order that objects of such importance should be attained, I have resolved diat in all
places in my dcjuiinion, the tribunals, the Juntas, and all public bodies, shall implore
the clemency of the Almighty in favour of the nation, and that the Archbishops, Bish-
ops and Capitular Vicars of vacant Sees, the Priors of Orders, and all those who ex-
ercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction, shall prepare missions, which shall exert theniselvea
to destroy erroneous, iiernicious, and heretical doctrines, and shut u]) in the monaster-
ies, of which the rules are the most rigid, those ecclesiastics, who have been the agents
of an impious faction.

" Sealed by my Royal hand !"

A Royal hand bathed in blood ; the witness of innumerable perjuries. — T!ie pioua
tacrijices to be offered to God are human victims : the best blood of Spain — Riego,
&c. t^ood heavens ! is it possible that die enlightened reason of man will long sub-
mit to be imposed upon by the canting of such vile, infamous wretches as Ferdinand
tlte Seventh 1

In the opinion of such blotches on the human character, the belief in mysteries and
miracles, and the performance of the idle ceremonies ordained by the Church, are
sufficient to atone for all sins, and that morals, in comparison, are of no value.

16 INTRODUCTION.

Christianity, as taught and practised by theologiEins and their adherents, is so ae«
curately described in a letter on superstition, addressed to the people of England, by
the celebrated William Pitt, (afterwards Earl of Chatham, and Prime Minister c^
Great Britain,) that I am induced to give it entire. It was first printed in the Lon-
don Journal in 1733.

LETTER OF WILLIAM PITT.

" Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father, it this : to vi»it the
Fatherless and Widows in their afflictions, and to keep one's self unspotted from
the World:'

Gentlemen, whoever takes a view of the world, will find, that what the greatest
part of mankind have agreed to call religion, has been only some outward exercise
esteemed sufficient to work a reconciliation with God. It has moved them to build
temples, flay victims, offer up sacrifices, to fast and feast, to petition and thank, to
laugh and en,-, to sing and sigh by turns ; hut it has not yet been found sufficient to
induce them to break off" an armour, to .'make restitution of ill-gotten wealth, or to
bring the passions and appetites to a reasonable subjection. Differ as much as they
may in opinion, concerning what tliey ought to believe, or after what manner they
are to serve God, as they call it, yet they all agree in gratifying their appetites. Tho
same passions reign eternally in all countries and in all ages, Jew and Mahometan,
tlie Christian and the Pagan, the Tartar and the Indian, all kinds of men who differ
in almost every thing else, universally agree with regard to their passions; if there
be any diff^erence among them it is this, that the more superstitious, the more vicious
they always are, and the more they believe, the less they practise. This is a mel-
ancholy consideration to a good mind ; it is a truth, and certainly above all things,
worth our while to4nquire into. We will, tlierefore, probe the wound, and search to
the bottom ; we will lay tlie axe to the root of the tree, and show you the true reason
why men go on in sinning and repenting, and sinning again through the whole course
of their lives ; and the reason is, because they have l)een taught, most wickedly taught,
that religion and virtue are two things absolutely distinct ; that the deficiency of the
one, might be supplied by the sufficiency of the other ; and that what you want in
virtue, you must make up in religion. But this religion, so dishonourable to God,
and so pernicious to men, is worse than Atheism, for Atheism, though it takes away
one great motive to support virtue in distress, yet it furnishes no man with arguments
to be vicious ; but superstitio»», or what the worki ir.eans by religion is the greatest
possible encouragement to tic*, by setting up something as religion, which shall atone
and commute for the want of virtue. This is establishing inicjuity by a law, the high-
est law; by authority^ the highest authority ; that of God himself. We complain of
tlie vices of the world, and of the wickedness of men, without searching into the true
cause. It is not because they are wicked by nature, for that is both false and im-
pious ; but liecause to serve the purposes of their pretended soul savers, they have
been carefully taught that they are wicked by nature, and cannot help continuing so.
It would have been impossible for men to have been both religious and viciou.':, had
religion been made to consist wherein alone it does consist ; and had they been al-
ways taught that tnie religion is the practice of virtue in obedience to tlie will of God,
who presides over all things, and will finally make every man happy who does his
duty.

^ This single opinion in religion, that all things are so well made by the Deity, that
virtue is its own reward, and that happiness will ever arise from acting according to
the reason of things, or that God, ever wise and good, will provide some extraordi-
nary happiness for those who suffier for virtue's sake, is enough to support a man un-
d«,r all difficulties, to keep him steady to his duty, and to enable him to stand as firm as
a rock, amidst all the charms of applause, profit, and honour. But this religion of
reason, which all men are capable of, has been neglected and condemned, and another
set up, the natural conse^iuences of which have puzzled men's understandings, and de-
bauched their morals, more than all the lewd poets and atheistical philosophers, that
ever infested the world ; for instead of lieing taught that religion consists in action,
or ol)edience to the eternal moral law of God, we have been most gravely and vener-
ably told that it consists in the Ix^lief of certain opinions which we could form no idea
of, or which were contrary to tlic clear perceptions of our minds, or which had no
tendency to make us either wiser or better, or which is much worse, had a manifest
tendency to make us wicked and immoral. And this belief, this impious belief, ari8<

INTRODUCTION. it

ing from imposition on one side, and from want of exammation on the other, has been
called by the sacred name of religion, whereas real and genuine religion consists in
knowledge and obedience. We know there is a God, and know his will, which is,
that we should do all the good we can ; and we are assured from his perfections, that
we shall find our own good in so doing.

And what would we have more 1 are we, after such inquiry, and in an age full of
lilx;rty, children still 1 and cannot we be quiet unless we have holy romances, sacred
fables, and tradition;iry tales to amuse us in an idle hour, and to give rest to our
souls, when our follins and vices will not suffer us to rest 1

You have been taught, indeed, that right beliefj or orthodoxy, will, like charity,
cover a multitude of sins ; but be not deceived) belief of, or mere assent to the truth
of propositions upon evidence is not a virtue, nor unbelief a vice ^ faith is not a volun-
tary-ict, docs not de|)end upon the will j every man must believe or disbelieve,
whether he will or not, according as the evidence appears to hiiUi If, therefore,
men, however digiiifieJ or distinguished, conunand us to believe^ they are guiltj' of
the highest foUv and alisurdity, because it is out of our power; but if they command
us to believe, a;id annex rewards to belief, and severe penalties to unbeliefj then they
are most wicked and iujmoral, because they annex rewards and punishments to wtiat
is invohinlary, and, therefore, neiilier rewardable nor punishable. It appears, then,
very plainly onieiisuiiable and unjust to command us to believe any doctrine, good or
bad, wi^e or unwise ; but, when men command us to believe opinions, which have no
tendency to promote virtue, but which are allowed to commute or atone for the want
ol'it, then llu^' are arrived at the utmost pitch of impiety, then is their iniquity full ;
then have tliev finished the misery, and completed the destruction of poor mortal man ;
by betraying the interest of virtue, they have undermined and sapped the foundation
of all human liai)j)iness ; and how trwicherously and dreadfully have they betrayed it!
A gift, well applied, the clattering of some unintelligible sounds called creeds; an
unfeigned assent and consent to whatever the church enjoins, religious worship and
consecrated feasts ; repenting on a death-bed ; (sardons rightly sued o\it ; and abso-
lution authoritatively given, have done more towards making and continuing men vi-
cious, than all the natural passions and infidelity jxtt together ; for infidelity can only
take away the supernatural rewards of virtue ; but these superstitious opinions and
practices, have not only turned the scene, and made men lose sight of the natural re-
wards of it, but have induced tliem to think, that were there no hereafter, vice woidd
be preferalJe to virtue, and that tliey increase in happiness as they increase in wick-
edness ; and diis they have been taught in several religious discourses and sermons,
delivered by men whose authority was never doubted, particularly by a late Rev.
prelate, I mean Bishop Atterbury, in his sermon on these words, " If in this life only
be hope, then we are of all men the most miserable," where vice and faith ride most
lovingly and triamphaotly together. But these doctrines of the natuial excellency of
vice, the efficacy of a right Ixdief, the dignity of atonements and propitiations, have
beside depriving us of the native beauty aud charms of honesty, and tluis cruelly stab-
bing virtue to the heart, raised and diffused among men a certain unnatural passion,
which we shall call a reh'gious hatred ; a hatred constant, deep-rooted, and inunorlal.
All other passions rise and fall, die and revive again, but this of religious and pious
hatred rises and grows every day stronger upon the mind as we grow more religious,
because we hate for God's sake, and for the sake of those poor souls too, who have
the misfortune not to believe as we do ; and can we in so good a cause hate too much 1
the more thoroughly we hate, the better we are ; and the more mischief we do to tlie
bodies and stales of these infidels and heretics, the more do we show our love to God.
This is religious zeal, and this has been called divinity ; but remember, the only true
divinitv is humanity-

W. PITT.

Against such a scheme of fraud and imposition, as faithfully delineated by Mr. Pitt,
has Thom:is Paine entered his protest ; and those who make a trade of the delusion,
as well as those who are duped by it, denounce him as an impious man ! And he,
in reply, might have exclaimed, in the language of Lequinto, before cited.

" I am an impious man, my dear reader ; and I tell the truth to every man, which ig
perhaps still worse. Four years are scarcely elapsed, since the follies of the Sorbonne,
and the furies of despotism, might have raised a storm, which would have burst upon
vay head ; they would have smitten ma like a destructive monster, an assassin of
jje human race, a perturbator, a traitor. Each of those colossal phaatoms has di»>

jg INTRODUCTIO>f.

appeared before tlie eye of reason, and the august image of llljerty ; nowevor, an in-
finite number of prejudices, personal interest, and hypocrisy, all of tlieui no less llie ty-
rants, and the enemies of knowledge, still dwell among us.

There still remains at the bottom of thy heart, at the bottom of thy own heart, the
prejudices of thy infancy, the lessons of thy nurse, and the opinions of thy first in-
structors, which are the effects of that renunciation of thought which thou liast prac-
tised all the days of thy life, from the cradle u|)\vards ! In addition to this, it is the
interest of every one to keep thee in total blindness. The rich and powerful man
dreads lest thou shouldst open thy eyes, and perceive that his strength and grandeur
proceed from thy ignorance and submission. The vain man, with equality in his
heart, fears lest tiiou shouldst discover the absurdity of his pretensions to superiority ;
the hypocrite, wlio terms himself the representative of the divinity, and the messenger
of heaven, trembles lest thou shouldst begin to reflect, for, from that moment bis credit
and his authority are at an end. He eats and drinks at his leisure ; he sleeps with-
out care ; he walks about in order to procure an appetite ; he enjoys the price of
thy labours in peace ; thou payest for his pleasures, his subsistence, and even for his
sleep. Bui, wert thou to begin to reason, thoH wouldst soon perceive thy error ; thou
wouldst touch tiin phantom, and it would instantly vanish ; thou wouldst discover that
he is an useless parasite, and that all his authority rejioses on thy foolish credulity,
thy weakness, thy chimerical fears, and the ridiculous hopes whicli he has taken care
to inspire thee with, ever since thou camest into existence. Periiaps thy very wife is
interested to deceive thee, on purpose to sanctify her connexions with the representa-
tive of the divinity, who renounces the holy laws of nature, because ho spares himsell,
at one and the same time, the uneasiness and ibe duties of paternity !

These will excite thy passions, arm thy heart, and call up thy hatred against my
lessons and my doctrine ; for 1 am an impious being, who neither believe in saints
nor in miracles ; I am an impious being, whowoidd ih ink wine in the midst ol Turks
at Constantinople, who would eat pork witii ti'.e Jews, and the lli^sh of a tender lamb
or a fat |)ullet among (he Christians on a I'riday, even within the palace of a I'ope,
or beneath the roof of the \atican. 1 am an impious man, for 1 lirndy believe that
three aie more ih.in one; that the whole is greater liian one of its parts ; tnat a Ixjdy
cannot exist in a tiimisand places at one and the same moment, and be entire in a
thousand detached portions of itself.

I am an impious man, for I never believe on the word of another, whatever contra-
dicts my own reason ; anil if a tiiousand doctorai of the law should tell mc, that they
had seen a sparrow devour an ox in a tiuarter of an hour, or take t!ie carcase in its
bill, and carry it to its nest in order to feed its young, were they even to swear by
their sur|)lices, their stoles, or their scjuare bonnets, they would still find me in-
credulous !

I am an impious man, fir T do not believe that anointing the tips of the fingers
^vith oil, wearing tlie ecclesiastical tonsure, or cutting the hair, that the being dotll-
ed in a black ca.^six-k, or a violet robe, and carrving a mitre on the head, and <t
cross in tiic hand, can remler an ignorant fellow able to work miracles.

In short, my brother, 1 imist lie an impious man, since my conduct has no other
regulator than mv conscienco; since I mvself have no other pi inciple, than the de-
bire of puljlie liappiness, and no other divinity than virtue. Thou nuist necessarily
hate me, for it is a great crime to thiid^ and to believe othcrwif^e than thyself!

But have I comndlted mnnier or Parnage, llieft, lupine, evil speaking, calumny ?
have I tauglit the art of ileeeiving men ? have I insinriated a spirit of vengeance '?
have I iiiculcatod despotism on the part of the great, and slavery on that of the
humble !

IS'o — on the Contrary, I have pointed out tlie load to truth ; I have proved to thee,
that thy happ.iness consists in virtue ; I have proved to thee, that thou hast hitherto
been the dupe of those who fatten upon thy substance, and bathe themselves in thy
sweat, and that all thy nnhappiness arises from thy creilnlity, thy habitual hatred to
rcdection, and thy pusillaniniilv. .Arc these crimes ! I am not guilty of any other.

Whoever thou art, thy friendship is precious to me; whether thou be (■hristian,
Mahomed.in, Jew, Indian, Persian, Tartar, or Chinese, art thou not a man, ami am
not I thy brother ? Tcdciate, thcrolore, an impious man, who has never laboiucd but
for the good of others, and who now labours for thine, at the very moment when thou
wishesl to persecute him."

As the character and habits of Thomas Paine have l)een grossly misrepresented by
those who either knew little or nothing of him, or were utterly regardless of truth, •

IINTRODUCTION. 19

shall here introduce an extract of a letter on that subject from Joel Barlow to James
Cheetham, a notorious libeller of Mr. Paine. Mr. Barlow must have been well ac-
quainted with Mr. Paine in France, as tliey were fellow-labourers in the great cause
of human emancipation ; and his sound principles, his moral and literary standing,
are sufficient guarantees for the correctness of his statement of facts that came under
his immediate observation. It is, however, apparent, that a part of his communica-
tion is founded on misinformation ; which I shall endeavour to demonstrate.

JOEL BARLOW TO JAMES CHEETHAM.

" Sir, — I have received your letter, calling for information relative to the life ol
Thomas Paine. It appears to me, that this is not the moment to publish the life of that
man in this country.* His own writings are his best life, and these are not read at
present.

[After noticing the unfavourable impressions which fanatics and political
enemies of Mr. P. had infused into the minds of a portion of the public to
wards him, Mr. Barlow proceeds.}

The writer of his life, who should dwell on these topics, to the exclusion of the
great and estimable traits of his real character, might indeed, please the rabble of the
age, who do not know him ; the book might sell ; but it would only tend to render the
tiuth more obscure for the future biographer, tlian it was before.

But if the present writer would give us Thomas Paine complete, in all his character,
as one of the most benevolent and disinterested of mankind, endowed with the clear-
est perception, an uncommon share of original genius, and the greatest breadth of
thought J if this piece of biography should analyse his literary labors, and rank him,
as he ought to be ranked, among the brightest and most undeviating luminaries of the
age in which lie has lived — yet with a mind assailable by flattery, and receiving
through that weak side a tincture of vanity which he was too proud to conceal; with
a mind, though strong enough to bear him up, and to rise elastic under the heaviest
hand of oppression, yet unable to endure the contempt of his former friends and fellow-
laborers, the rulers of the country that had received his first and greatest services —
a mind incapable of looking down with serene compassion, as it ought, on the rude
scofls of their imitators, a new generation that knows him not — if you are disposed
and prepared to write his life thus entire, to fill up the picture to which these hasty
strokes of outlines give but a rude sketch with great vacuities, your book may be a
useful one.

The biographer of Thomas Paine, should not forget his mathematical acquirements,
and his mechanical genius. His invention of the iron-bridge, which led him to
Europe in the year 17S7, has procured him a great repulation in that branch of science
in France and'Englanil, in both which countries his bridge has been adopted in many
instances, and is now much in use.

You ask whether he took an oath of allegiance to France. Doubtless the qualifi-
cation to be a memlier of the convention, required an oath of fidelity to that country,
but involved in it no abjuration of his fidelity to this. He was made a French
citizen by the same decree with Washington, Hamilton, Priestley, and Sir James
3Iackintosh.

You ask what company he kept — he always frequented the !)est, both in England
and France, till he became the object of calumny' in certain American papers, (echoes
of the English court papers,) for his a<iherence to what he thought the cause of liberty
in France — till he conceived himself neglected by his former friends in the United
States. From that moment he gave himself very much to drink, and consequently to
companions less worthy of his better days.

It is said he was always a peevish inmate — this is possible. So was iMur nee
Sterne, so was Torquaio Tasso, so was /. /. Rousseau ; but Thomas Paine, b a
visiting acquaintance, and as a literary friend, the only points of view in whi h I
knew him, was one of tlie most instructive men I have ever known. He had a sur-
prising meihory and brilliant fancy; his mind was a store house of facts and useful
observations ; he was full of lively anecdote, and ingenious original pertinent re-
mark, upon almost every subject.

He was always charitable to tlie poor beyond his means, a sure protector and
friend to all Americans in distress that he found in foreign countries. And he liad
frequent occasions to exert his influence in protecting them during the revolution in

* America.

20

INTRODUCTION.

France. His writings will answer for his patriotism, and his entire devotion to what
he conceived tn be the \»:sl interest and happiness of mankind.

And as to his religion, as it is that of most of the men of science of the pres-
ent age, and probably of three fourths of those of the last, there can be no just
reason for making it an exception in him.

This, sir, is all 1 have to remark on the subject you mention
Kolaraiua, August 11, 1809.

REMARKS.

Mr. Banovv seems to h.ive entertained erroneous opinions in regard to the treat-
ment of Mr. Paine in America. He was received by the ruler, or first magis-
trate of the country, Thomas JelVerson, with the utmost respect and friendship. — -He
was invited by him to return to the United States; and on being asked if ,he had
done so, replied, " I have, and when he arrives, if tlicre be an office in my gift, suit-
able for him to i\\\, I will give it to him; — I will never abandon old friends to make
room fur new ones." A friendly correspondence Ijetween these two distinguished
philantliroijists was maintained till the close of Mr. Paine's life. I am also well as-
sured, that die heads of departments anil members of congress paid Mr. Paine the
utmost respect, during his residence at the city of Washington ; and, on his arrival in
New York, a public dinner was given to him, at which about one hundred respectable
citizens attenuled. Tlie most distinguished literary characters paid him every atten-
tion, and the mayoi" of tlie city gave him an unlimited invitation to visit him, when-
ever he found it convfnieiit. But Mr. Paine secluded himself very much from socie-
ty ; he courted no favours, and he never was in the habit of giving entertainments, the
means commonly i-Mi|)lii^eil lo attract the attention of the fashionable world. A friend
of his, about lo acconi] any liim on a visit to a gentleman of great scientific aciiiiirenients,
took the liJjerty of sugj-csting to him the propriety of bi.ing more particular in his ap-
pearance ; to which he re|)lied, " let those dress that ne(;d it." Showing thereby
his contempt of the art and management by which those of little or no merit acquire
respect.

Sir. Paine, to be suie, was abused by editors of papers unfriendly to democracy.
So was Dr. Fraidxiin, so was Thomas Jefl'erson, so was Joel Barlow. If Mr. Paine
had lx;en treated with res|)ect, or even not abused by iJiose editors, it would have
Ijeen a sure si^fn, that he had abandoned the cause of lilwrty, and of man. But his
political coiuse has been maiked by that bold and manly independence of character
which has certainly commauiled, if not the approbation, at least tlie respect of his
opponents.

Mr. Barliivv himself, on account of his political opinions had been treated witli the
most shanicful neglect by hisold friends and ;u«sociates of the New England St4ites,and
be felt vexed at it, and seems lo take this opportunity to express his contempt, by
lameniing that Mr. Paine should, as he supposed, have been mortified at similar treat-
ment.

Mr. Barlow was a fishinnable man, and had the means, as well as the inclination
to make a sHi>w. Had Mr. Paine aci|nire<l (which he might have done if he had
solil instead of given awav his works) a sufiiciency to purchase such an establishment
as Mr. liarlow had, at Kolarama, and had been so disposed, he might have induced
tlie first nu'U in the CDuntrv to eat his dinneis and to sound his praise.

It was to Ik! expected lliat religious bigots, who conceive themselves privileged to
hale and peiseciile everv man that does imt believe in mysteries and wilchcrafl, would
shun and speak evil nf Mr. Paine; as well as certain |)haris.iical politicians, whose
conse(|Uen(e maiidy depends on a siii>posed coincidence rif sentiment with the foregoing.
Such men wool I avoid coming in contact with a man, the fire of whose genius they
could not enduie for a moment.

The o|.'p(inents of Mr. I'aine's political and religious writings have sliown great so-
licituile ti) fix upon him the charge of intemperance ; as though, this circumstance, if
true, could invalidate, or in the li'ast weaken, the moral force of his principles. The
H^Mihtale, C'heelhain, in his letter to Barlow, particularly alludes to this subject. And
it afipeais [hat the l.iiler incaniiouslv has too readily acceeded to the slander. The
mind, memory, wnA fancy of Mr. Paine, as described by Mr. B. could not apply to
a man who " garc himself very much to drink." But, as Mr. Barlow's authority
h) justly entitled to die liii,'hcsl consiileration ; and as great importance has afTectcdly
Ill-en attached to this allii^Miioii against onr author; for the satisfaction of those who
revere his memory, I have made the most rigid inquiriesof persons who have been in-

INTRODUCTION". 21

timate with him, either m Europe or America, to ascertain the facts in this case. A
friend of mine gives me the following account of a visit he made to Mr. Paine in the
summer of 1806. He wais tl>en residing on his farm at New Rochelle, and this gen-
tleman remained with him for several davs, during which time Mr. Paine's only
drink was water, excepting one tumbler ot spirits and water, sweetened, after dinner,
and one after supper. Mr. Dean, who managed the farm, assured him that this
was Mr. Paine's constant habit, and that one quart of spirits sufficed him for a week,
including that given to his friends; which he regularly procured from a grocer every
Saturday. This gentleman also saw a certificate, signed by John Lovett, keeper of
the city hotel, New-York, with whom Mr. Paine had lodged as a boarder, testifyin"
to his sober habits. This had been procured at tlie request of a number of gentlemen
of Boston, who were desirous to obtain correct iufoniiation in regard to die charges
preferred against him in this respect.

The fact is, Mr. I'aine was not a fashionable man of die world, his recluse mode
of life disqualified him for convivial parties, and when induced, by liis friends, to 'join
in them, he could not keep pace in drinking with those more used to such meetings,
without being disguised by it, which was sometimes the case. The very ciiciuiist:\nce,
tiierefore, of his abstemious habits rendering him unable to bear but a small quantity
of spirituous liquor, widiout feeling its effects, appears to have given rise to the slan-
ders which have been promulgated against him. The acuteness and strength of mind
which he possessed to the close of lil'e is a proof of the correctness of this opinion..
Few, if any, of those who accused him of injuring his faculties by hard diinking could
cope with him in tlie field of argument, even in the most advanced stage of his life.
They had reason to wish that he had been such as they represented him to be. In that
case, he would have been a far less formidable antagonist, and besides kept many of
his accusers in countenance ; for it is not unusual for the advocates of royalty, after
drinking one or two bottles, to curse Thomas Paine for a drunkard.

If what was said by his enemies had become notorious, as they pretend, he would
hardly venture to speak of himself in the manner he has, in his letter to Samuel
Adams ; which he caused to be published in tlie National Intelligencer, a paper
printed at Washington City, and is as follows : " I have yet, I believe, some years
in store, for I have a good state of health and a happy mind ; I take care of both,
by nourishing the first witli temperance, and the latter with abundance. This, I be-
lieve, you will allow to be the true philosophy of life."

Finally, from all I can learn, Mr. Paine never drank any spirituous liquors before
dinner. He was always bright in the morning, and able to wield his pen with efl^ect.
and when it is considered, that he was without family, in a manner isolated from
society, and bitterly attacked on all sides by the enemies of civil and religious liberty,
if he occasionally indulged a little to dissipate the chagrin arising from these causes,
some grains of allowance ought to be made, at least by his friends ; from his enemies
none are expected.

I cannot relinquish the subject without taking notice of one of the most vile and
wicked stories that was ever engendered in the fruitful imagination of depraved mor-
tals. It was fabricated by a woman, named Mary Hinsdale, and |)ublislied by one
Charles Collins, at New-York, or rather, it is probable that this work was the joint
production of Collins, and some other fanatics, and that they induced this stupid, ig-
norant woman to stand sponsor for it.

It states, in substance ; that Thomas Paine, in his last illness, was in the most
pitiable condition for want of the mere necessaries of life ; and that the neighbours
out of sheer compassion, contributed their aid to supply him with sustenance : that he
had become converted to superstition* and lamented that all his religious works had
not been burned : that Mrs. Bonneville was in the utmost distress for having abandon-
ed her religion, as she (M. H.) said for that of Mr. Paine, which he now told her
would not answer the purpose, &c. In all this rodomotade there is not a single, soli-
tary ray of truth to give it a colourable pretext. It is humiliating to be under the
necessity ef exposing such contemptible nonsense. Collins, if he was not the author,
was assured of its falsity : But beir.g/w// of the spirit of fanaticism and intolerance,
and believing, no doubt, that the end sanctified the means, he continued to circulate
the pious fraud, and the clergy exultingly retailed it from the pulpit. Nothing but
religious frenzy could have induced Collins, after being warned of the crime lie

• I make use of die word superstition, and not Christianity, because Mr. Paine waa
Btrictly a Christian in the proper seuse of the term, which, as before observed, is pure
deism.

22 INTRODUCTION.

was committing, IQ persist in publishing this abominable trash.* He had the
hardihood even to apply to William Coblx;lt tor tiie purpose of inducing him to insert
it in die life of Thomas Paine, which Mr. Cobbett tiien contemplated to write. For
which he received due chastisement from the pen of that distinguislied writer, in a
number of his register. I am told lliat Mr. Cobbett subsequently, having taken great
pains to investigate the falsity of this story, exposed and refuted it in the most ample
manner, in his Evening Post. This I lia-ve not seen, nor is the Register, containing
the article alluded to, before me. Mrs. Bonneville was absent in France at the time
of its first appearance in New-York, and when shown to her on her return to Ameri-
ca, although her feelings were liighly agitated at the baseness of the fabrication, she
would not permit her name to appear in print in competition with tliat of Mary Hins-
dale. No notice therefore has been taken of it, excepting by Mr. Cobbett. Indeed
it was considered by the friends of Mr. Paine generally to be too contemptible to con-
trovert. But as many pious people continue to believe, or pretend to believe in this
stupid story, it was thought proper to say a few words upon it in tiiis publication.

The facts are as f<dlows : — Mary Hinsdale was hired at service in the family of
Mr. Willet Hicks, residing at Greenwich Village, in the neiglibourhood of Mr. Paine,
who occasionally sent some little delicacies to him in the time of his sickness, as every
good neighijour would do ; and this woman was the bearer. Here is the whole foun-
dation upon which the distorted imagination of Mary Hinsdale, or some one for her,
has raised this diabolical fiction. Mr. Hicks was in the habit of seeing Mr. Paine
frequentlv, and must have known if such a wonderful revolution had taken place in
his mind, as is stated, and he does not hesitate to say, that tlie whole account is a
pious fraud. Mr. Hicks is a respectable merchant at New-Yoik, and any one
there, who has any doubts on the subject, by calling on him will be satisfied. Even
James Clieelham, tlie libeller of Mr. Paine, acknowledges that he died in the reli-
gious faith which he had inculcated in his writings. Which is also attested by his
jihysician, Dr. Manley, and all tiiose who visited him in his last illness. But to put
this matter beyond all cavil,! shall add the certificate of two old and hii^hly respecta-
ble citizens, 'J'iiomas Nixon of New-York, and Capt. Daniel Pelton of New Rochelle.
It wi\s addressed to William Cobbelt, under an exi)ectation that he was about to write
tlic life of Thomas Paine, and left with a friend to be handed to him ; but as the un-
dertaking was re]iiK|iiished, it was never delivered, and is now in my possession, in
the hand v>Titing of the signers ; and is as follows :

TO MR. WILLIAM COBBETT.

Sir — Having been informed, that you have a design to write a history of the life
and writings of Thomas Paine-, if you have been furnished with materials in respect
to iiis religious opinions, or lallicr of his recantation of ids former opinions before his
deatii, all you may have heard of Ids rcc.intiiig is false. Being awjire that such re-
jiorts would be raised after his doath by fanactiiks which infested his house at the
time it was expected he would die, we, t!ie subscribers, iiiliuiate jcii'aainlances of
'I'homas Paine, since the year I77C, went to his house — he was sitling up in a cliair,
and apparently in tlie fidl vigor and use of all his mental facullies. We inteirogaicd
liiin on his religious opinions, and if he had chau:^cd his mind or re|)cnt(Ni of any
thing he ha(l said or wrcjteon that subject. He answered, " not at all," and appeared
rather offended at our supposition (hat any change should take place in his mind.
Wc took down in writing liie (iiiestions pnt to hiui, and his answers lliereto, before a
number of persons thru in his room, amongst which was his D<i<tor, Mis. Bonneville,
he. This paper is nnsl.iid and cannot be fiund at present, but the abo\e is the sub-
stance, which can be attested by many living witnesses.

THOMAS NIXON.

DANIEL PELTON.
New-York, April 24ih, 1S18.

•Since writing the above, .it has t)oen suggested to me, liy a gentleman wno knows
him, that this base iict of Collins is atlribut;d)le more to his actual stupidity than either
his fanaticism or malice. That he is too weak to l)e aware of the siu of slander ; and
has no doubt, in lliis case, Iwen made use of, us a mere puppet, bv others behind the
scene, more knowini; and more wicked than himself. If this be the f.ict, it is charity
to State it lo the piil)lic, as his rase will tend to excite pity, and dejirCciatc, in somu
measure, the enormity of his guilt in this transaction.

INTRODUCTION. 23

The cjiieslions and answers, alluded to in this certiHcate, are wanting to render it
complete, but tiie intention of it is forcihiy conveyed, tiiat is, tliat no change had la-
ken plac^ in the mind of Mv. I'aine. And the world may rest assured that he died
as iie liad Mvefl, like a philosopher, in the belief of ONE coD, and in the hope of im-
mortality in another life.

As to his pecuniary circumstances, he was possessed at his death, of a farm, which
had been sold by him some years before for !}*;10,0()0, but the purchaser dying,' his
family induced Mr. P. to receive it back. He had :Jj'l,500 in cash on hand, or in con-
vertibls insurance stock; and had been paying .^30 a week for several weeks before
his death, for the board and accommodations of himself, Mrs. Bonneville, and
a nurse ; which was regularly paid at the end of each week. This doe.s not look like
being in want of the means of subsistence.

In regard to what took pLace respecting his burial, as it has been incorrectly sta-
ted, it may not be amiss to remark, that not long before his death, he observed to
Mr. Willet Hicks, that as his family belonged to the society of Quakers, and as he
had been educated in that persuasion himself, and knew that its members possessed
less superstition than other sectarians, he should perfer being interred in their bury-
ing ground ; but added, as he had been so long separated from them, perhaps there
might be objections on their part ; and, if so, it was of no consequence. Mr. Hicks
accordingly made the proposal to the society, which, in reply, suggested the probabil-
ity that Mr. Vs. friends might wish to raise a monument to his memory, which being
contrary to their rules, would render it inconvenient to them. On this being commu-
nicated to Mr. P. he received it with iniiifference, and here the matter ended. I take
the liberty of again referring to Blr. Hicks for the truth of this statement. It has
been falsely said, that a diflerence of religious opinions was the ground of (Jijection
made to Mr. P's. proposition ; which, if true, would be a reproach to the Quaker
Bocicty, or to any other religious denomirration in like case. It is well known, that
in bigotted catholic countries, no deist, or protestant (heretic, as the catholics wouM
call him) would be permitted to be buried in any consecrated church ground. But
it is to be hoped that no protestant of any denomination would wish to see his sect
retrograde so far into religioui barbarism as to refuse decent burial to a fellow-mor-
tal on account of his religious faith. No such objection has ever been made in New-
York; and the vestry of trinity churcb are obliged by law to permit, without reward
all strangers, as well as those who are not members of any particular church or con-
gregation, to be interred in their burying-ground, on pain, in case of refusal, of for-
feitmg their charter.

Attempts have been made to injure the character of Mr, Paine, by impugning that
of Mrs. Bonneville. James Cheetham, for this offence, after a long and rigid inves-
tigation in a court of justice, was mulct in the sum of £100, and obliged to expunge
the obnoxious jrassage from his infamous book. As the connection of Mr. P. with
the Bonneville family is not generally known, it is proper to observe, that he resided
with Mr. B. at Paris, as his friend and guest for the space of six jears. Bonneville
was die editor of a public paper during the revolution of France, and on the eleva-
tion of Bonaparte to power, refused to approbate the measure, and wrote against it.
In this he was probably advised and aided by Mr. P. The consequence was, thai
Bonaparte suppressed his paper, which was the cause of great embarrassments to
liim ; and Paine, ongoing to America, invited Bonneville to follow him with his fam-
ily, promising to do every thing in his power to aid him. Accordingly, some time
after his departure, Bonneville sent his wife and three children, remaining in France
himself to settle his affairs. They were received by Mr. Paine with the utmost
kindness, and provided for ; and at his death he left by his will to Bonneville and his
children, the greatest portion of his property ; tliereby paying a debt of gratitude witli
interest.

TO MY

FELLOW CITIZE]YS

OP THE

U]?riTED STATES OF AMERICA,

I PUT the following work under your protection. It con-
tains my opinion upon Religion. You will do me the justice to
remember, that I have always strenuously supported the Right
of every Man to his opinion, however different that opinion might
be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave
of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself
the right of changing it.

The most formidable weapon, against errors of every kind, is
Reason. I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall.

Your affectionate friend and fellow-citizen,

THOMAS PAINE.

Lujcemhourg, (Paris,) Sth Pluvioise,
Second year of the French Republic, ojte aixd indivisible.
January 27, O. S. 1794.

THE

AGE OF REASOIN.

PART THE FIRST.
BEING AN INVESTIGATION OF

TRUE AND FABULOUS THEOLOGY.

It has been my intention, for several years past, to publish my
thoughts upon religion ; I am well aware of the difficulties that
attend the subject, and from that consideration, had reserved it to
a more advanced period of life. I intended it to be the last ofler-
ing I should make to my fellow-citizens of all nations, and that at
a time when the purity of the motive that induced me to it, could
not admit of a question, even by those who might disapprove the
work.

The circumstance that has now taken place in France of the
total abolition of the whole national order of priesthood, and of
every thing appertaining to compulsive systems of rehgion, and
compulsive articles of faith, has not only precipitated my intention,
but rendered a work of this kind exceedingly necessary, lest, in
the general wreck of superstition, of false systems of government,
and false theology, we lose sight of morality, of humanity, and of
the theology that is true.

As several of my colleagues, and others of my fellow-citizens of
France, have given me the example of making their voluntary and
individual profession of faith, I also will make mine ; and I do this
with all that sincerity and frankness with which the mind of man
communicates with itself

I believe in one God, and no more : and I hope for happiness
beyond this life.

I believe the equality of man ; and I believe that religious du-
ties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to
make our fellow-creatures happy.

But, lest it should be supposed that I believe many other things
in ad lition to these, 1 shall, in the progress of this work, declare
the things I do not beUeve, and my reasons for not believing
them.

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church,
by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish

28 THE AGE OF REASON.

church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that T know
» of. My own mind is my own church.

f All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian,
1 or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up
\ to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and

1 profit.

' I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe
otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to
mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be

• mentally faithful to himself Infidelity does not consist in behev-

• ing or in disbelieving ; it consists in professing to believe what
. he does not believe.

It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so ex-
press ^t, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man
has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to
subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he
has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime. —
He takes up the trade of a priest for the sake of gain, and in order
to qualify himself for that trade, he begins with a perjury. Can
we conceive any thing more destructive to morality than this .''

Soon after I had published the pamphlet, " Common Sense," in
America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the
system of government would be followed by a revolution in the
system of religion. The adulterous connexion of church and
state, wherever it had taken place, whether Jewish, Christian, or
Turkish, had so effectually prohibited by pains and penalties every
discussion upon established creeds, and upon first principles of
religion, that until the system of government should be changed,
those subjects could not be brought fairly and openly before the
world ; but that whenever this should be done, a revolution in the
system of religion would follow. Human inventions and priest-
craft would be detected ; and man would return to the pure, un-
mixed, and unadulterated belief of one God, and no more.

Every national church or religion has established itself by pre-
tending some special mission from God, communicated to certain
individuals. The Jews have tlicir Moses ; the Christians then-
Jesus Christ, tlieir apostles, and saints ; and the Turks their
Mahomet, as if the way to God was not open to every man
alike.

Each of those churches show certain books, which they call
revelation, or the word of God. The Jews say, that their word
of God was given by God to Moses, face to face ; the Christians
say, that their word of God came by divine inspiration ; and the
Turks say, that their word of God (the Koran) was brought by
an angel from Heaven. Each of those churches accuse the other
of unbelief ; and, for my own part, I disbelieve them all.

As it is necessary to affix right ideas to words, I will, before I
proceed further into the subject, offer some other observations on

THE AGE OF REASON. 29

the word revelalion. Revelation, when apphed to rehgion, means
something communicated immediately from God to man.

No one will deny or dispute the power of the Almighty to make
such a communication, if he pleases. But admitting, for the sake
of a case, that something has been revealed to a certain person,
and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person
only. When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third,
a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all
those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and
heorsay to every other ; and, consequently, they are not obliged
to believe it.

It is a contradiction in terms and ideas, to call any thing a reve-
lation that comes to us at second-hand, either verbally or in writ-
ing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication ;
after this, it is only an account of something which that person
saysVas a revelation made to him ; and though he may find him-
self obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent on me to believe
it in the same manner ; for it was not a revelation made to me,
and I have only his word for it that it was made to him.

When Moses told the children of Israel that he received the
two tables of the commandments from the hands of God, they were
not obliged to believe him, because they had no other authority for
it than his telling them so ; and I have no other authority for it
than some historian telling me so. The commandments carry no
internal evidence of divinity with them ; they contain some good
moral precepts, such as any man qualified to be a lawgiver, or a
legislator, could produce himself, without having recourse to su-
pernatural intervention.*

When I am told that the Koram was written in Heaven, and
brought to Mahomet by an angel, the account comes too near the
same kind of hearsay evidence and second-hand authority as the
former. I did not see the angel myself, and, therefore, I have a
right not to believe it.

When also I am told that a woman called the Virgin Mary, said,
or gave out, that she was with child without any cohabitation with
a man, and that her betrothed husband, Joseph, said that an angel
told him so, I have a rieht to believe them or not : such a circum-
stance required a much stronger evidence than their bare word foi
it ; but we have not even this — for neither Joseph nor Mary wrote
any such matter themselves ; it is only reported by others that
they said so — it is hearsay upon hearsay, and I do not choose to
rest my belief upon such evidence.

It is, however, not difficult to account for the credit that was
given to the story of Jesus Christ being the son of God. He was
born when the heathen mythology had still some fashion and re-

* It isj liowever, necessary to except the declaration which says, that God visits
the sins of the fathers upon the children ; it is contrary to every principle of
iDoral justice.

3#

so THE AGE OF REASON.

pute in the world, and that mythology had prepared the people
for the belief of such a story. Almost all the extrat>rdinary men
that lived under the heathen mythology, were reputed to be the
sons of some of their gods. It was not a new thing, at that tin>e,
to believe "a. man to have been celestially begotten ; the inter-
course of gods with women was then a matter of familiar opinion.
Their Jupiter, according to their accounts, had cohabited with
hundreds ; the story therefore had notliing in it either new, won-
derful, or obscene ; it was conformable to the opinions that then
prevailed among the people called Gentiles, or Mythologists, and
it was those people only that believed it. The Jews, who had
kept strictly to the belief of one God, and no more, and who had
always rejected the heathen mythology, never credited the story.

It is curious to observe how the theory of what is called the
Christian church, sprung out of the tale of the heathen mythology.
A direct incorporation took place in the first instance, by matting
the reputed founder to be celestially begotten. The trinity of gods
that then tbllowed was no other than a reduction of the former
plurality, which was about twenty or thirty thousand ; the statue
of JVIary succeeded the statue of Diana of Ephcsus ; the deifica-
tion of heroes ciianged into the canonization of saints ; the mythol-
ogists had gods for every thing ; the Christian mythologists had
saints for every thing ; the church became as crowded with the
one, as the pantheon had been with the other ; and Rome was the
place of both. The Christian theory is little else than the idola-
try of the ancient Mvthologists, accommodated to the pm'poses of
power and revenue ; and it yet remains to reason and philosophy
to abolish tiie aiiipiiibious fraud.

Nothing that is here said can apply, even with the most distant
disrespect, to the real character of Jesus Christ. He was a vir-
tuous and an aniial)le man. The morality tliat he preached and
practised was of the most benevolent kind ; and though similar
systems of moralitv had been preached by Confucius, and by some
of the Greek .j)liilosoplicrs, many years before ; by the Quakers
since ; and by many good men in all ages, it has not been ex-
ceeded by ariv.

Jesus Clirist wrote no accoimt of hiinsclt", of liis l)irth, paren-
tage, or any tiling else ; not a line of what is c.illed the New Tes-
tament is of his own writing. The history of liim is altogether
the work of other people ; and as to the account given of his res-
urrection and ascrnsion, it was the necessary couulcrpart to the
Htory of his birth. His hi.«torians, having brought him into the
world in a ^iipern/itniid mnnuer, were oi)liged to take him out
jigain in tiic same nuinncr, or tlic first part of tlie story nuist have
tidbii to the ground.

'i'hc wrclclicd contrivance with u liich tliis latter part is fold, ex-
ceeds every thing that went before it. Tin; first part, that of the
miraculous conception, was not a thing that admitted of publicity j

THE AGE OF REASON. 31

and therefore the tellers of this part of the story had this advan-
tage, that though they might not be credited, they could not be
detected. They could not be expected to prove it, because it was
not one of those things that admitted of proof, and it was impossi-
ble that the person of whom it was told could prove it himself.

But the resurrection of a dead person from the grave, and his
ascension through the air, is a thing very different as to the evi-
dence it admits of, to the invisible conception of a child in the
womb. The resurrection and ascension, supposing them to have
taken place, admitted of public and ocular demonstration, like that
of the ascension of a balloon, or the sun at noon day, to all Jeru-
salem at least. A thing which every body is required to believe,
requires that the proof and evidence of it should be equal to all,
and universal ; and as the public visibility of this last related act
was the only evidence that could give sanction to the former part,
the whole of it falls to the ground, because that evidence never
was giveo. Instead of this, a small number of persons, not more
than eight or nine, are introduced as proxies for the whole world,
to say they saw it, and all the rest of the world are called upon tc
believe it. But it appears that Thomas did not believe the res
urrection ; and, as they say would not believe without having
ocular and manual demonstration himself. So neither ivill I, and
the reason is equally as good for me, and for every other person
as for Thomas.

It is in vain to attempt to palliate or disguise this matter. The
story, so far as relates to the supernatural part, has every mark o
fraud and imposition stamped upon the face of it. Who were the
authors of it is as impossible for us now to know, as it is for us to be
assured, that the books in which the account is related, were writ-
ten by the persons whose names they bear ; the best surviving ev-
idence we now have respecting this affair is the Jews. They are
regularly descended from the peo^'le who lived in the times this
resurrection and ascension is said to have happened, and they say,
it is not time. It has long appeared to me a strange inconsistency
to cite the Jews as a proof of the truth of the story. It is just the
same as if a man were to say, I will prove the truth of what I have
told you, by producing the people who say it is false.

That such a person as Jesus Christ existed, and that he was
crucified, which was the mode of execution at that day, are histori-
cal relations strictly within the limits of probability. He preached
most excellent morality, and the equality of man ; but he preached
also against the corruptions and avarice of the Jewish priests, and
this brought upon him the hatred and vengeance of the whole order
of priesthood. The accusation which those priests brought against
him, was that of sedition and conspiracy against the Roman gov-
ernment, to which the Jews were then subject and tributary ;
and it is not improbable that the Roman government might have
some secret apprehensions of the effects of his doctrines as well

32 THE AGE OF PvEASO-V.

as the Jewish priests ; neither is it improbable that Jesus Chrifit
had in contemplation the dehvery of the Jewish nation from the
bondage of the Romans. Between the two, however, this virtu-
ous reformer and revohitionist lost his life.

It is upon this plain narrative of facts, together with another
case I am going to mention, that the Christian Mythologists, call-
ing themselves the Christian Church, have erected their fable,
which for absurdity and extravagance is not exceeded by any
thing that is to be found in the mythology of the ancients.

The ancient JMythologists tell us that the race of Giants made
war against Jupiter, and that one of them threw an hundred rocks
against him at one tlirow ; that Jupiter defeated him with thunder,
and confined him afterwards under Mount Jiltna, and that every
time the Giant turns himself, INlount ililtna belches tire.

It is here easy to see that the circumstance of the mountain,
that of its being a volcano, suggested the idea of the fable ; and
that the fable is made to fit and wind itself up with that circum-
stance.

The Christian Mythologists tell us, that their Satan made war
against the Almiohty, who defeated him, and confined him after-
wards, not under a mountain, but in a pit. It is here easy to see
that the first fable sugsested the idea of the second : f<ir the fable
of Jupiter and the Giants was told many hundred years before
that of Satan.

Thus far the ancient and the Christian 3Iythologists differ very
little from each other. But the latter have contrived to carry the
matter much farther. They have contrived to connect the fabu-
lous part of the story of Jesus Christ with the fable originating
from Mount il^4na ; and, in order to make all the parts of the
story tie together, they have taken to their aid the traditions of
the Jews; for the Christian mythology is made up partly from the
ancient mythology, and partly from the Jewish traditions.

The Christian IVIytliologists, after having confined Satan in a
pit, were ol)ligcd to let him out again, to bring on the sequel of
the fable. He is then introduced into tlie garden of Eden in the
.shape of a snake or a serpent, and in that shape he enters into
familiar conversation witli Kve, who is no way surprised to hear
a snake talk ; and the issue of this tete-a-tete is, that he per-
suades her to eat an apple, ajnd the eating of that apple damns all
mankind.

After giving Satan this triumph over the whole creation, one
would have supposed that the church Mythologists would have
been kind enough to send him back again to the pit ; or, if they
had not done this, that they would have put a mountain ui)on him,
(for they say that their faith can remove a mountain) or have put
him iindrr a mountain, as the former Mythologists had done, to
prevent his getting again among the women, and doing more
mischief But instead of this, they leave him at large, without

THE AGE OF REASOiV. 33

even obliging him to give his parole — the secret of which is, that
they could not do without him ; and after being at the trouble of
making him, they bribed him to stay. They promised him all
the Jews, all the Turks by anticipation, nine-tenths of the world
beside, and Mahomet into the bargain. Afler this, who can doubt
the bountifulness of the Christian mythology .''

Having thus made an insuiTection and a battle in Heaven, in
which none of the combatants could be either killed or wounded —
put Satan into the pit — let him out again — given him a triumph over
the whole creation — damned all mankind by the eating of an
apple, these Christian Mythologists bring the two ends of their fa-
ble together. The/ represent this virtuous and amiable man,
Jesus Christ, to be at once both God and Man, and also the Son
of God, celestially begotten, on purpose to be sacrificed, because
they say that Eve in her longing had eaten an apple.

Putting aside every thing that might excite laughter by its absur-
dity, or detestation by its prophaneness, and confining ourselves
merely to an examination of the parts, it is impossible to conceive
a story more derogatory to the almighty, more inconsistent with
his wisdom, more contradictory to his power, than this story
is.

In order to make for it a foundation to rise upon, the inventors
were under the necessity of giving to the being, whom they call
Satan, a power equally as great, if not greater than they attribute
to the Almighty. They have not only given him the power of
liberating himself from the pit, after what they cdll his fall, but
they have made that power increase afterwards to infinity. Before
this fall they represent him only as an angel of limited existence,
as they represent the rest. After his fall, he becomes, by their
account, omnipresent. He exists every where, and at the same
time. He occupies the whole immensity of space.

Not content with this deification of Satan, they represent him
as defeating, by stratagem, in the shape of an animal of the creation,
all the power and wisdom of the Almighty. They represent him
as having compelled the Almighty to the direct necessihj either of
surrendering the whole of the creation to the government and
sovereignty of this Satan, or of capitulating for its redemption by
coming down upon earth, and exhibiting himself upon a cross in
the shape of a man.

Had the inventors of this story told it the contrary way, that is,
had they represented the Almighty as compelling Satan to exhibit
himself on a cross, in the shape of a snake, as a punishment for his
new transgression, the story would have been less absurd — less
contradictory. But instead of this they make the transgressor
triumph, and the Almighty fall.

That many good men have believed this strange fable, and lived
very good live.q under that belief (for credulity is not a crime) is
what I have no doubt of. In the first place, they were educated to

34 THE AGE OF REASON.

believe it, and they would have believed any thing else in the same
manner. There are also many who liave been so enthusiastically
enraptured by what they conceived to be the infinite love of God
to man, in making a sacrifice of himself', that the vehemence of the
idea has forbidden and deterred them from examining into the ab-
surdity and profaneness of the story. The more unnatural any
thing is, tlie more is it capable of becoming the object of dismal
admnation.

But if objects for gratitude and admiration arc our desire, do they
not present themselves every hour to our eyes ? Do wc not see a
fair creation prepared to receive us the instant we are born — a
world furnished to our hands, that cost us nothing ? Is it we that
light up the sun, that pour down the rain, and fill the earth with
abundance ? Whether we sleep or wake, tlie vast machinery of the
universe still goes on. Are these things, and the blessings they
indicate in future, nothing to us ? Can our gross feelings be ex-
cited by no other subjects than tragedy and suicide ? Or is the
gloomy pride of man become so intolerable, that nothing can flat-
ter it but a sacrifice of the Creator?

I know this bold investigation will alarm many, but it would
be paying too great a compliment to tlioir credulity to forbear it up-
on that account ; the times and the subject demand it to be done.
The suspicion that the theory of what is called the Christian church
is fabulous, is becoming very extensive in all countries ; and it will
be a consolation to men staggering under that suspicion, and
doubting what to believe and wiiat to disbelieve, to see the subject
freely investigated. I therefore pass on to an examination of the
books called the Old and New I'estament.

Those books, beginning with Genesis and ending with Revela-
tion (wliich I)y the bye is a book of riddles that requires a revela-
tion to explain it) are, we are told, the word of God. It is, there-
fore, j)ropor for us to know who told us so, that we may know what
credit to give to tiie report. The answer to this question is, that
nobody can tell, except tiiat we tell one another so. The case,
however, historically appears to be as follows: —

When tlie church INIythologi.-ts esfablished their system, they
collected all the writings they could find, and managed them as
they pleased. It is a matter altogether of uncertainty to us
whethrr such of the writings as now appear under the name of
the Old and ^few Testament, are in the same state in which those
collectors .say they found them, or whether they added, altered,
abridged, or dressed them up.

Be this as it may, they de<Mded by vote which of the books out
of the collection they had made, should be (he word of god, and
which should not. They rt^ected several ; they voted others to
be doul)ffMl, such as the books called the Apocrypha ; and those
books which had a inajori y of votes, were voted to be the word
of God. Had tliev voted otherwise, all the people, since calling

THE AGE OF REASOX. 35

themselves Christians, hud believed otherwise — for the belief of
the one comes from the vote of the other. Who the people were
that did all this, we know nothing of, they called themselves by the
general name ofthe Church ; and this is all we know of the matter.

As we have no other external evidence or authority for believ-
ing those books to be the word of God than what 1 have mentioned,
which is no evidence or authority at all, I come, in the next place,
to examine the internal evidence contained in the books them-
selves.

In tlije former part of this Essay, I have spoken of revelation. —
I now proceed further with that subject, for the purpose of apply-
ing it to the books in question.

Revelation is a communication of something, which the fensou,
to whom that thing is revealed, did not knou before. F(-t if I
have done a thing, or seen it done, it needs no revelation to tell me
I have done it, or seen it, nor to enable me to tell it, or to v.rite it.
Revelation, therefore, cannot be applied to any thing done upon
earth, of wliich man is himself the actor or the witness ; and con-
sequently all the historical and anecdotal part ofthe Bible, which
is almost the whole of it, is not within the meaning and compass
ofthe word revelation, and therefore is not the word of God.

When Sampson ran oft" with the gate-posts of Gaza, if he ever
did so, (and whether he did or not is nothing to us) or when he
visited his Delilah, or caught his foxes, or did any thing else, what
has revelation to do with these things .'' If they were facts, he
could tell them himself ; or his secretary, if he kept one, could
write them, if they were worth either telling or writing ; and if
they were fictions, revelation could not make them true ; and
whether true or not, we are neither the better nor the wiser for
knowing them. W^hen we contemplate the immensity of that Be-
ing, who directs and governs the incomprehensible whole, of
which the utmost ken of human sight can discover but a part, we
ought to feel shame at calling such paltry stories the word of God.

As to the account ofthe Creation, with which the book of Gen-
esis opens, it has all the appearance of being a tradition which
the Israelites had among them before they came into Egypt ; and
after their departure from that country, they put it at the head of
their history, without telling (as it is most probable) that they did
not know how they came by it. The manner in which the ac-
count opens, shov/s it to be traditionary. It begins abruptly : it
is nobody that speaks ; it is nobody that hears ; it is addressed to
nobody ; it has neither first, second, or third person ; it has every
criterion of being a tradition, it has no voucher. Moses does not
take it upon himself by introducing it with the formality that he
uses on other occasions, such as that of saying, " The Lord spake
unto Moses, saying.'^

Why it has been called the Mosaic account of the Creaton, I
am at a loss to conceive. Moses, I believe, was too good a judge

36 THE AGE OF REASON

of such subjects to put his name to that account. He had been
educated among the Egyptians, who were a people as well skilled
in science, and particularly in astronomy, as any people of their
day ; and the silence and caution tli.'it Moses observes, in not au-
thenticating the account, is a good negative evidence that he
neither told it nor believed it. — The case is, that every nation of
people has been world-makers, and the Israelites had as much
right to set up the trade of world-making as any of the rest ; and
as Moses was not an Israelite, he might not choose to contradict
the tradition. The account, however, is harmless ; and this is
more than can be said of many other parts of the Bible.

Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debau-
cheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vin-
Qictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would
be more consistent that we called it the word of a Demon, than
the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served
to corrupt and brutalize mankind ; and, for my own part, I sin-
cerely detest it as I detest every thing that is cruel.

We scarcely meet with any thing, a few phrases excepted, but
what deserves either our abhorrence or our contempt, till we come
to the miscellaneous parts of the Bible. In the anonymous pub-
lications, the Psalms, and the Book of Job, more particularly in
the latter, we find a great deal of elevated sentiment reverentially
expressed of the power and benignity of the Almighty ; but they
stand on no higher rank than many other compositions on similar
subjects, as well before that time as since.

The Proverbs which are said to be Solomon's, though most
probably a collection (because they discover a knowledge of life,
which his situation excluded him from knowing) are an instructive
table of ethics. They are inferior in keenness to the proverbs of
the Spaniards, and not more wise and economical than those of
the American Franklin.

All the remaining parts of the Bible, generally known by the
name of the Prophets, are tlic works of the Jewish poets and itine-
rant preachers, who mixed poetry, anecdote, and devotion to-
gether— and those works still retain the air and style of poetry,
though in translation.*

* As there are many renders wlin do not see tliat a composition is poetry, unless it
be in rhyme, it is for their infonnation that I add this nute.

Poetry consists principally in two tilings — imagery and composition. The coinjiosi-
tion of |)oetry differs from that of prose in tile manner of mixing long and short svlla-
1)1(!S together. Take a long svllahle out of a line of poetry, and pat a short one in
the room of it, or put a long syllalile where a .«hort one slioidd lie, and that line will
lose its poetical harmony. It will have an elTect upon the line like that of mii--placing
a note in a siin".

'l"be irnageiy in lliiTBe Iwoks, called the prophets, appertains altogether to poetry.
It ii licliiioiis, and often extravagant, and not admissible in any other kind of writing
tlian poetry.

To bIiow that these writings arc composed in poetical nnmhers, I will take ten
syllables, as they stand in the l)ook, and make a line of the same number of syllables

THE AGE OP REASON. 37

There is not, throughout the whole book called the Bible, any
word that describes to us what we call a poet, nor any word that
describes what we call poetry. The case is, that the word
prophet, to which latter times have affixed a new idea, was the Bible
word for poet, and the word prophesying meant the art of making
poetry. It also meant the art of playing poetry to a tune upon any
instrument of music.

We read of prophesying with pipes, tabrets, and horns — of
prophesying with harps, with psalteries, with cymbals, and with
every other instrument of music then in fashion. Were we now to
speak of prophesying with a fiddle, or with a pipe and tabor, the
expression would have no meaning, or would appear ridiculous,
and to some people contemptuous, because we have changed the
meaning of the word.

We are told of Saul being among the prophels, and also that he
prophesied ; bitt we arc not told what theij prophesied nor what he
prophesied. The case is, there w^as nothing to tell ; for these
prophets were a company of musicians and poets, and Saul joined
in the concert, and this was called jjrophesying.

The account given of this affair, in the book called Samuel, is,
that Saul met a company of prophets ; a whole company of them !
coming down with a psaltery, a tabret, a pipe, and a harp, and that
they prophesied, and that he prophesied with them. But it ap-
pears afterwards, that Saul prophesied badly ; that is, performed
his part badly ; for it is said, that, an "evil spirit from God''^* came
upon Saul, and he prophesied.

Now, were there no other passage in the book, called the Bible,
than this, to demonstrate to us that we have lost the original mean-
ing of the word prophesy, and substituted another meaning in its
place, this alone would be sufficient ; lor it is impossible to use
and apply the word prophesy, in the place it is here used and ap-
plied, if we give to it the sense which latter times have affixed to
it. The manner in which it is here used strips it of all religious
meaning, and shows that a man might then be a prophet, or might

(heroic measure) that sliall rhyme with the last word. It will then be seen that the
composition of those books is poetical measure. The instance I shall produce is
from Isaiah : —

" Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth .'"

'Tis God himself that calls attention forth.
Another instance I shall quote is from the mournful Jeremiah, to which I shall add
two other lines, for the purpose of carrying out the figure, and showing the intention
of the poet.

" O .' that mine head were toaters and mine eyes"

Were fountains, flowing like the liquid skies ;

Then would I give the mighty flood release,

And weep a deluge for the human race.

* As those men, who call themselves divines and commentators, are very fond of
puzzling one another, I leave them to contest the meaning of the first part of the
jihrase, that of an evil spirit of God. I keep to my text — I keep to the meaning
of the word prophesy.

4

38 THE AGE OF REASOK.

prophesy, as he may now be a poet or musician, without any re-
gard to the moraHty or immoraUty of his character. The word was
originally a term of science, promiscuously applied to poetry and
to music, and not restricted to any subject upon which poetry and
music might be exercised.

Deborah and Barak are called prophets, not because they prer
dieted any thing, but because they composed the poem or song that
bears their name, in celebration of an act already done. David is
ranked among the prophets, for he was a musician, and was also
reputed to be (though perhaps very erroneously) the author of the
Psalms. But Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not called prophets;
it does not appear from any accounts we have that they could either
sing, play music, or make poetry.

We are told of the greater and the lesser prophets. They might
as well tell us of the greater and the lesser God ; for tliere cannot
be degrees in prophesying, consistently with its modern sense. — -
But there are degrees in poetry, and therefore the phrase is recon-
cileable to the case, when we understand by it the greater and the
lesser poets.

It is altogether unnecessary, after this, to offer any observations
upon what those men, styled prophets, have written. The axe
goes at once to the root, by showing that the original meaning of the
word has been mistaken, and consequently all the inferences that
have been drawn from those lx)oks, the devotional respect that has
been paid to them, and the laboured commentaries that have been
written upon thcxm, under that mistaken meaning, are not worth
disputing about. In many things, however, the writings of the
Jewish poets deserve a better fate than that of being bound up, as
they now are, with the trash that accompanies them, under the
abused name of the word of God.

If we permit oursclvesto conceive right ideas of things, we must
necessarily afhx the idea, not only of unchangeableness, but of the
utter impossibility of any change taking place, by any means or ac-
cident whatever, in that which we would honour with the name of
the word of God ; and therefore the word of God cannot exist in
any written or human language.

The continually progressive change to which the meaning of
words is subject, the want of an universal language which renders
translation neressa.y? the errors to which translations are again
subject, the mistakes of copyists and printers, together with the
possibility of wilfnl alteration, are of themselves evidences that hu-
man language, whether in speech or in print, cannot be the vehicle
of the word of God The word of God exits in something else.

Did the book, called the Bible, excel in purity of ideas and ex-
pression all the books now extant m the world, I would not take
it for my rule of faith, as being the word of God, because the pos
sibility would nevertheless exist of my being imposed upon. But
when I see throughout the greatest part of this book^ scarcely any

THE AGE OF REASON. 39

thing but a history of the grossest vices, and a collection of the
most paltry and contemptible tales, I cannot dishonor my Creator
by calling it by his name.

Thus much for the Bible , I now go on to the book called the
New Testament. The JVtw Testament ! that is, the neiv will, as
iF there could be two wills of the Creator.

Had it been the object or the intention of Jesus Christ to estab-
lish a new religion, he would undoubtedly have written the system
himself, or procured it to be UTilien in his life time. But there is
no publication extant authenticated with his name. All the books
called the New Testaiuent were written after his death. He was
a Jew by birth and by profession ; and he was the son of God in
like manner that every other person is — for the Creator is the Fa-
ther of All.

The first four books, called Matthew, IVIark, Luke, and John,
do not give a history of the life of Jesus Christ, but only detached
anecdotes of him. It a[)pears from these books, that the whole
time of his being a preacher was not more than eighteen months ;
and it was only during this short time, that those men became ac-
quainted with him. They make mention of him at the age of
twelve years, sitting, they say, among the Jewish doctors, asking
and answering them questions. As this was several years before
their acquaintance with him began, it is most probable they had
this anecdote from his parents. From this time there is no ac-
count of him for about sixteen years. Where he lived, or how
he employed himself during this interval, is not known. Most
probably he was working at his father's trade, which was that of
a carpenter. It does not appear that he had any school education,
and the probability is, that he could not write, for his parents were
extremely poor, as appears from their not being able to pay for a
bed when he was born.

, It is somewhat curious that the three persons whose names are
the most universally recorded, were of very obscure parentage
Moses was a foundling ; Jesus Christ was born in a stable ; and
Mahomet was a mule-driver. The first and the last of these men,
were founders of different systems of religion ; but Jesus Christ
founded no new system. He called men to the practice of moral
virtues, and the belief of one God, The great trait in his char-
acter is philanthropy.

The manner in wliich he was apprehended, shows that he was
not much known at that time ; and it shows also, that the meetings
he then held with his followers were in secret ; and that he had
given over or suspended preaching publicly. Judas could no oth-
erwise betray liim than by giving information where he was, and
pointing him out to the officers that went to arrest him ; and the
reason for employing and paying Judas to do this could arise only
from the causes already mentioned, that of his not being much
known, and living concealed.

40 THE AGE OF REASON

The idea of his concealment, not only agrees very ill with his
reputed divinity but associates with it something of pusillanimity ;
and his being betrayed, or in other words, his being apprehended,
on the information of one of his followers, shows that he did not
intend to be apprehended, and consequently that he did not intend
to be crucified.

The Christian Mythologists tell us, that Christ died for the sins
of the world, and that he came on purpose to die. Would it not
then have been the same if he had died of a fever or of the small
pox, of old age, or of any thing else ?

The declaratory sentence which, they say, was passed upon
Adam, in case he eat of the apple, was not, that thou slialt surely be
crucified, but iJiou sJudl surchj die — the sentence of death, and not
the manner of dying. Crucifixion, therefore, or any other par-
ticular manner of dying, made no part of the sentence that Adam
was to suffer, and consequently, even upon their own tactics, it
could make no part of the sentence that Christ was to suffer in the
room of Adam. A fever would have done as well as a cross, if
there was any occasion for either.

This sentence of death, which they tell us, was thus passed upon
Adam, must either have meant dying naturally, that is, ceasing to
live, or have meant what these Mythologists call damnation ; and,
consequently, the act of dying on the part of Jesus Christ, must,
according to their system, apply as a prevention to one or other of
these two things happening to Adam and to us.

That it does not prevent our dying is evident, because we all
die ; and if their accounts of longevity be true, men die faster since
the crucifixion than before ; and with respect to the second ex-
planation, (including with it the natural death of Jesus Christ as
a substitute for the eternal death or damnation of all mankind) it
is impertinently representing the Creator as coming oflT, or revok-
ing the sentence, by a pun or a quibble upon the word death.
That manufacturer of quibbles, St. Pnul, if he wrote the books
that bear his name, has helped this quibble on by making another
quibble upon the word Jldam. He makes there to be two Adams ;
the one who sins in fact, and suffers by j)roxy ; the other who sins
by proxy, and suffers in fact. A religion thus interlarded with quib-
ble, subterfuge, and pun,- has a tendency to instruct its professors
in the practice of these arts. They acquire the habit without be-
ing awaic of the cause.

If Jesus Christ was the being which those INIythologiststcll us he
•was, and that he came into this world to suffer, which is a word
they sometimes use instead of to die, the only real suflTering he
could have endured, would have been to live. His existence here
was a state of exilement or transportation from Heaven, and the
way back to his original country was to die. — In fine, every thir^
in this strange system is the reverse of what it pretends to be. It
is the reverse of truth, and I become so tired with examining into

THE AGE OF REASOI? 41

its inconsistences and absurdities, that I hasten to the conclusion
of it, in order to precede something better.

How much, or what parts of the books called the New Testa-
ment, were written by the persons whose names they bear, is what
we can know nothing of, neither are we certain in what language
they were originally written. The matters they now contain may
he classed under two heads — anecdote and epistolary correspon-
dence.

The four books already mentioned, IMatthcw, Mark, Luke, and
John, are altogether anecdotal. They relate events after they had
taken place. They tell what Jesus Christ did and said, and what
others did and said to him ; and in several instances they relate the
same event difl'erently. Revelation is necessarily out of the ques-
tion with respect to those books ; not only because of the disagree-
ment of the writers, but because revelation cannot be applied to the
relating of facts by the persons wiio saw them done, nor to the re-
lating or recording of any discourse or conversation by those who
heard it. The book called the Acts of the Apostles (an anonymous
work) belongs also to the anecdotal part.

All the other parts of the New Testament, except the book of
enigmas, called the Revelations, are a collection of letters under
the name of epistles ; and the forgery of letters has been such a
common practice in the world, that the probability is at least equal,
whether they are genuine or forged. One thing, however, is much
less equivocal, which is, that out of the matters contained in those
books, together with the assistance of some old stories, the church
has set up a system of religion very contradictory to the character
of the person whose name it bears. It has set up a religion of
pomp and of revenue, in pretended imitation of a person whose life
was humility and poverty.

The invention of purgatory, and of the releasing of souls there-
from, by prayers, bought of the church with money ; the selling of
pardons, dispensations, and indulgences, are revenue laws, with-
out bearing that name or carrying that appearance. But the case
nevertheless is, that those things derive their origin from the pa-
roxysm of the cruciiixion and the theory deduced therefrom, which
was, that one person could stand in the place of another, and could
perform meritorious services for him. The probability, there-
fore, is, that the whole theory or doctrine of what is called the re-
demption (which is said to have been accomplished by the act of
one person in the room of another) was originally fabricated on
purpose to bring forward and build all those secondary and pecu-
niary redemptions upon ; and that the passages in the books upon
which the idea of theory of redemption is built, have been manu-
factured and fabricated for that purpose. Why are we to give
this church credit, when she tells us that those books are genuine
in every part, any more than we give her credit for every thing
else she has told us ; or for the miracles she says she has per-

4*

42 THE AGE OF REASON.

formed ? That she could fabricate writings is certain, because she
could write ; and the composition of the writings in question is of
that kind that any body might do it ; and that she did fabricate them
is not more inconsistent with probabiUty, than that she should tell
us, as she has done, that she could and did work miracles.

Since then no external evidence can, at this long distance of
time, be produced to prove whether the church fabricated the doc-
trines called redemption or not, (tor such evidence, whether for or
against, would be subject to the same suspicion of being fabricat-
ed) the case can only be referred to the internal evidence which
the thuig carries of itself ; and this affords a very strong presump-
tion of its being a fabrication. For the internal evidence is, that
the theory or doctrine of redemption has for its basis an idea of
pecuniary justice, and not that of moral justice.

If I owe a person money, and cannot pay him, and he threat-
ens to put me in prison, another person can take the debt upon
himself, and pay it for me ; but if I have committed a crime, ev-
ery circumstance of the case is changed, moral justice cannot take
the innocent for the guilty, even if the innocent would offer itself.
To suppose justice to do this, is to destroy the principle of its ex-
istence, which is the thing itself; it is then no longer justice ; it
is indiscriminate revenge.

This single reflection will show that the doctrine of redemption
is founded on a mere pecuniary idea, corresponding to that of a
debt, which another person might pay ; and as this pecuniary idea
corresponds again with the system of second redemptions, obtained
through the means of money given to the church for pardons, the
probability is, that the same persons fabricated both one and the
ether of those tlveories ; and that, in truth, there is no such thing
as redemption ; that it is fabulous, and that man stands in the same
relative condition with his Maker he ever did stand, since man ex-
isted, and that it is liis greatest consolation to think so.

Let him believe this, and he will live more consistently and mo-
rally than by any other system ; it is by his being taught to con-
template himself as an out-law, as an out-cast, as a beggar, as a
mumper, as one thrown, as it were, on a dunghill, at an immense
distance from his Creator, and who must make his approaches by
creepinji and crinirinii to intermediate bcinjjs, tliat lie conceives
cither a contemptuous disregard for every thing under the name
of religion, or becomes indifferent, or turns, what he calls devout.
In tlie latter case, he consumes liis life in grief, or the affectation
of it ; his prayers are reproaches ; his humility is ingratitude ; he
calls iiimsclf a worm ; and the fertile earth a dunghill ; and all the
blessings of life, by the thankless name of vanities ; he despises
the choicest gift of God to man, the gift of reason ; and having
endeavored to force upon himself the belief of a system against
which reason revolts, he ungratefully calls it human reason, as if
man could give reason to hiniself.

THE AGE OF REASON. - 43

Yet, with all this strange appearance of humility, and this con-
tempt for human reason, he ventures into the boldest presump-
tions ; he finds fault with every thing ; his selfishness is never
satisfied ; his ingratitude is never at an end. He takes on liim-
self to direct the Almighty what to do, even in the government of
the universe ; he prays dictatorially ; when it is sun-shine, he prays
for rain, and when it is rain, he prays for sun-shine ; he follows the
same idea in every thing that he prays for ; for what is the amount
of all his prayers, but an attempt to make the Almighty change
his mind, and act otherwise than he does ? It is as if he were to
say — thou knowest not so well as I.

But some perhaps will say — Are we to have no word of God —
No revelation ! I answer, Yes : there is a word of God ; there is
a revelation.

The word of God is the creation we behold : And it is in
this word, which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that
God speakcth universally to man.

Human language is local and changeable, and is therefore inca-
pable of being used as the means of unchangeable and universal
information. The idea that God sent Jesus Christ to publish, as
they say, the glad tidings to all nations, from one end of the earth
to the other, is consistent only with the ignorance of those who
knew nothing of the extent of the world, and who believed, as
those world-saviours believed, and continued to believe, for seve-
ral centuries, (and that in contradiction to the discoveries of phi-
losophers, and the experience of navigators) that the earth was
flat like a trencher ; and that a man might walk to the end of
it.

But how was Jesus Christ to make any thing known to all na-
tions .'' He could speak but one language, which was Hebrew ;
and there are in the world several hundred languages. Scarcely
any two nations speak the same language, or understand each oth-
er ; and as to translations, every man who knows any thing of lan-
guages, knows that it was impossible to translate from one lan-
guage to another, not only without losing a great part of the orig-
inal, but frequently of mistaking the sense ; and besides all this,
the art of printing was wholly unknown at the time Christ lived.

It is always necessary that the means that are to accomplish
any end, be equal to the accomplishment of that end, or the end
cannot be accomplished. It is in this, that the difference between
finite and infinite power and wisdom discovers itself Man fre-
quently fails in accomplishing his ends, from a natural inability of
the power to the purpose ; and frequently from the want of wis-
dom to apply power properly. But it is impossible for infinite
power and wisdom to fail as man faileth. The means it useth are
always equal to the end ; but human language, more especially
as there is not an universal language, is incapable of being used
as an universal means of unchangeable and uniform information,

44 THE AGE OF REASON.

and therefore it is not the means that God useth in manifesting
himseir universally to man.

It is only in the cueatiox that all our ideas and conceptions of
a word of God can unite. The Creation speaketh an universal
language, independently of human speech or human language,
multiplied and various as they be. It is an ever-existing original,
which every man can read. It cannot be forged ; it cannot be
counterfeited ; it cannot be lost ; it cannot be altered ; it cannot
be suppressed. It does not depend upon the will of man whether
it slmll be published or not ; it publishes itself from one end of
the earth to the otlier. It preaches to all nations and to all
worlds ; and this ivord of God reveals to man all that is necessary
for man to Know of God.

Do we want to contemplate his power ^ We see it in the im-
mensity of the Creation. Do we want to contemplate his wis-
dom .'' We see it in the unchangeable order by which the incom-
prehensible whole is governed. Do we want to contemplate his
munificence ? We see it in the abundance with which he fills the
earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy ? We see it in his
not withholding that abundance even from the unthankful. In
fine, do we want to know what God is ? Search not the book call-
ed the Scripture, which any human hand might make, but the
Scripture called the Creation.

The only idea man can affix to the name of God, is that of a
first causCy the cause of all things. And, incomprehensible and
ditlicult as it is lor a man to conceive what a first cause is, he ar-
rives at the belief of it, from the tenfold greater difficulty of dis-
believing it. It is diflicult beyond description to conceive that
space can have no end ; but it is more diflicult to conceive an end.
It is diificult beyond the power of man to conceive an eternal du-
ration of what we call time ; but it is more impossible to conceive
a time v.hcn tliere shall be no time. In like manner of reasoninsr,
every thing we behold carries in itself the internal evidence that
it did not make itself Every man is an evidence to himself, that
he did not make himself; neither could his father make himself,
nor his grandfatlier, nor any of his race ; neither could any tree,
jiIant,or animal make itself; and it is the conviction arising from
this evidence, that carries us on, as it were, by necessity, to the
belief of a first cause eternally existing, of a nature totally difTer-
ent to any material existence we know of, and by the power of
which all things exist ; and this first cause man calls God.

It is oidy by the exercise of reason, that man can discover God.
Take away that reason, and he would be incapable of understand-
ing any thing ; and, in this case, it would be just as consistent to
read even the book called the Bible to a horse as to a man. How
then is it that those peo|)le pretend to reject reason .'

Almost tiie only parts in the book called the Bible, that convey
to us any idea of God, are some chapters m Job, and the 19th

THE AGE OF REASOX. 45

Psalm ; I recollect no other. Those parts are true deishcal com-
positions ; for they treat of the Dekij through his works. They
talce the book of Creation as the word of God, they refer to no
other book, and all the inferences they make are drawn from that
volume,

I insert, in this place, the 19th Psalm, as paraphrased into Eng-
lish verse by Addison. I recollect not the prose, and where I
write this I have not the opportunity of seeing it.

The spacious firmament on high,

With all the blue ethereal sky,

And spangled heavens, a shining frame

Their great original proclaim.

The unwearied sua, iVom day to day

Does his Creator's pov/cr display,

And publishes to every land.

The work of an Almighty hand.

Soon as the evening shades prevail,.

The moon takes up the wondrous tale,

And nightly to the list'ning earth

Repeats the story of her birth ;

Whilst all th« stars that round her burn,

And all the planets, in their turn,

Confirm the tidings as they roll.

And spread the truth from pole to pole.

What though in solemn silence all

Move round this dark terrestrial ball ;

What though no real voice, nor sound,

Amidst their radiant orbs be found,

In reason's ear they all rejoice,

And utter forth a glorious voice,

For ever singing as they shine.

The hand that made us is divine.

What more does man want to know than that the hand, or pow-
er, that made these things is divine, is omnipotent ? Let him be-
lieve this with the force it is impossible to repel, if he permits his
reason to act, and his rule ot' moral life will follow of course.

The allusions in Job have all of them the same tendency with
this Psalm ; that of deducing or proving a truth, that would be
otherwise unknown, from truths already known.

I recollect not enough of the passages in Job, to insert them
correctly : but there is one occurs to me that is applicable to the
subject I am speaking upon. " Canst thou by searching find out
God ?" " Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection ?"

I know not how the printers have pointed this passage, for I
keep no Bible ; but it contains two distinct questions, that admit
of distinct answers.

46 THE AGE OF REASOX.

First — Canst tliou by searching find out God ? Yes ; because
in the first phice, I know I did not make myself, and yet I have
existence ; and by sccuxliing into the nature of other things, I find
that no other tiling could make itselt"; and yet millions of other
things exist ; therefore it is, that I know, by positive conclusion
resulting from this search, that there is a power superior to all
those things, and that power is God.

Secondly — Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection V No;
not only because the power and wisdom lie has manifested in the
structure of the Creation that I behold, is to me incomprehensi-
ble, but because even this manifestation, great as it is, is probably
but a small display of that immensity of power and wisdom, by
which millions of other worlds to me invisible by their distance,
were created and continue to exist.

It is evident, that botli of these questions were put to the reason
of the person to whom they are supposed to have been address-
ed ; and it is only by admitting the first question to be answered
aflirmatively, that the second could follow. It would have been
unnecessary, and even absurd, to have put a second question, more
difficult than the first, if the first question had been answered
negatively. The two questions have different objects ; the first
refers to the existence of God, the second to his attributes ; rea-
son can discover the one, but it falls infinitely short in discover-
ing the whole of the other,

I recollect not a single passage in all the writings ascribed to
the men called apostles, that convey any idea of what God is.
Those writings are chielly controversial ; and the subject they
dwell upon, that of a man dying in agony on a cross, is better suit-
ed to the gloomy genius of a monk in a cell, by whom it is not
impossible they were written, than to any man breathing the open
air of the Creation. The only passage that occurs to me, that has
any reference to the works of God, by which only his power and
wisdom can be known, is related to have been spoken by Jesus
Christ, as a remedy against distrustful care. " Behold the lilies of
the field, they toil not, neither do they spin." This, however, id
far inferior to the allusions in Job, and in the 19th Psalm; but it is
similar in idea, and the modesty of the imagery is correspondent
to the modesty of the man.

As to the Christian system of faith, it appears to mc as a species
of atheism — a sort of religious denial of (iod. It professes to be-
lieve in a man rather than in God. It is a compound made up
chiefly of manism with but little deism, and is as near to atheism
as twilight is to darkness. It introduces between man and his
Maker an opaque body, which it calls a Redeemer, as the moon
introduces ber opaque self between the earth and tlie sun, and it
produces by this m«^ans a religious or an irreligious eclipse of
light. It has put the whole orbit of reason into shade.

The cflect of this obscurity has been that of turning overy thing

THE AGE OF REASON. 47

upside down, and representing it in reverse ; and anion<>; the rev-
olutions it iuis tiuis magically produced, it has made u revohitiuii
in Theology.

That which is now called natural philosophy, enihracinnr the
whole circle of science, of which Astronomy occupies tlie ciiief
place, is the study of the works of God, and of the power and
wisdom of God in his works, and is the true theology.

As to the theology that is now studied in its phice, it is tlie study
ofhuman opinions and of human fancies conctniiuf^ God. It is not
the study of God himself in the works that he has made, but in
the works or writings that man has made ; and it is not among the
least of the mischiefs that the Christian system lias done to the
world, that it has abandoned the original and beautiful system of
theology, like a beautiful innocent, to distress and reproach, to
make room for the hag of superstition.

The book of Job, and the 19th Psalm, which even the clun-ch
admits to be more ancient than the chronological order in which
they stand in the book called the Bible, are theological orations
conilirmabic to the original system of theology. The internal ev-
idence of those orations proves to a demonstration that the study
and contemplation of the works of Creation, and of the power and
wisdom of God, revealed and manifested in those works, made a
great part of the religious devotion of the times in which they were
w/itten ; and it was this devotional study and contemplation that
led to the discovery of the principles upon which, wTiat are now
called Sciences, are established ; and it is to the discovery of these
principles that almost all the Arts that contribute to the conveni-
ence ofhuman life, owe their existence. Every principal art has
some science for its parent, though the person who mechanically
performs the work does not always, and but very seldom, perceive
the connexion.

It is a fraud of the Christian system to call the sciences /Mtman
invention ; it is only the application of them that is human. Ev-
ery science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and un-
alterable as those by which the universe is regulated and govern-
ed IVIan cannot make principles ; he can only discover them :

For example — Every person who looks at an Almanack sees
an account when an eclipse will take place, and he sees also that
it never fails to take place according to the account there given.
This shows that man is acquainted with the laws by which the
heavenly bodies move. But it would be something v/orse than ig-
norance, were any church on earth to say, that those laws are an
human invention. It would also be ignorance,or something worse,
to say that the scientific principles, by the aid of which man is en-
abled to calculate arid foreknow when an eclipse will take place,
are an human invention. Man cannot invent any thing that is
eternal and immutable ; and the scientific principles he employs
for this purpose must, and are, of necessity, as eternal and immu-

48 THE AGE OF REASON.

table as the laws by which the heavenly bodies move, or they
could not be used as they are to ascertain the time when, and the
manner how, an eclipse will take place.

The scientific principles tliut man employs to obtain the fore-
knowledge of an echpse, or of any thing else, relating to the mo-
tion of the lieavenly bodies, are contained chiefly in that part of
science which is called Trigonometry, or the properties of a tri-
angle, which when applied to the study of the heavenly bodies, is
called Astronomy ; wben applied to direct the course of a ship on
the ocean, it is called Navigation ; when applied to the construc-
tion of figiires drawn by rule and compass, it is called Geometry ;
when applied to the construction cf plans of edilices, it is called
Architecture ; when applied to tlie measurement of any portion
of the surlace ol'tlic earlli, it is called Land-surveying. In fine,
it is the soul of science ; it is an eternal truth ; it contains the
mathemalical dunonstraiuni of which man speaks, and the extent
of iis uses is unknown.

It may be said, that man can make or draw a triangle, and
theretoro a triangle is an human invention.

But the triangle, when drawn, is no other than the image of the
principle ; it is a delineation to the eye, and from thence to the
mind, of a principle tliat would otherwise be imperceptible. The
triangle does not make the principle, any more than a candle tak-
en into a room that was dark, makes the chairs and tables that
before were invisible. All the properties of the triangle exist in-
dependently of tlio figure, and existed before any triangle was
drawn or thought of by man. Man had no more to do in the
formation of those properties or principles, than he had to do in
making the laws by which the heavenly bodies move ; and there-
fore the one must have the same divine origin as the other.

In the same manner as it may be said, that man can make a tri-
angle, so also may it be said, he can make the mechanical instru-
ment called a lever ; but the [)rinciple, by which the lever acts, is
a thing distinct from tlie instrument, and would exist if the mstru-
ment did not : it attaches itself to the instrument after it is made ;
tlie instrument, therefore, can act no otherwise than it does act ;
neither can all (lie etibrts of human invention make it act other-
wise— That wiiich, in all such cases, man calls the rff'ed, is no
other than the principle itself rendered perceptible to the senses.

Since then man cannot make principles, from whence did ho
gain a knowledge of them, so as to be able to apply them, not only
to things on earth, but to ascertain the motion of bodies so^ im-
mensely distant from him as all the lieavenly bodies are } From
whence, I ask, could he gain that knowledge, but from the study
of the true theology ?

It is the structure of the universe that has taught this knowledge
to man. That structure is an ever-existing exhibition of every
principle upon which every part of mathematical science is foun-

THE AGE OF REASON 49

ded. The ofTspring of this science is mechanics ; for mechanics
IS no other than the principles of science appUed practically.
The man who proportions the several parts of a mill, uses the same
scientific principles, as if he had the power of constructing an
universe ; but as he cannot give to matter that invisible agency,
by which all the component parts of the immense machine of the
universe have influence upon each other and act in motional unison
together, without any apparent contact, and to whjch man has
given the name of attraction, gravitation, and repulsion, he sup-
plies the place of that agency by the humble imitation of teeth and
cogs. All the parts of man's microcosm must visibly touch ; but
could he gain a knowledge of that agency, so as to be able to ap-
ply it in practice, we might then say, that another canonical book
of the word of God had been discovered.

If man could alter the properties of the lever, so also could he
alter the properties of the triangle ; for a lever (taking that sort
of lever which is called a steel-yard, for the sake of explanation)
forms, when in motion, a triangle. The line it descends from, (one
point of that line being in the fulcrum) the line it descends to, and
the cord of the arc, which the end of the lever describes in the
air, are the three sides of a triangle. The other arm of the lever
describes also a triangle ; and tlie corresponding sides of those
two triangles, calculated scientifically, or measured geometrical-
ly ; and also the sines, tangents, and secants generated from the
angles, and geometrically measured, have the same proportions to
each other, as the different weights have that will balance each
other on the lever, leaving the weight of the lever out of the case.

It may also be said, that man can make a wheel and axis ; that
he can put wheels of different magnitudes together, and produce
a mill. Still the case comes back to the same point, which is, that
he did not make the principle that gives the wheels those powers.
That principle is as unalterable as in the former cases, or rather it
is the same principle under a different appearance to the eye.

The power that two wheels, of different magnitudes, have up-
on each other, is in the same proportion as if the semi-diameter of
the two wheels were joined together and made in that kind of
lever I have described, suspended at the part where the semi-di-
ameters join ; for the two wheels, scientifically considered, are
no other than the two circles generated by the motion of the com-
pound lever.

It is from the study of the true theology that all our knowledge
of science is derived, and it is from that knowledge that all <he
arts have originated.

o

The Almighty lecturer, by displaying the principles of science
in the structure of the universe, has invited man to study and to
imitation. It is as if he had said to the inhabitants of this globe,
that we call ouis, " I have made an earth for man to dwell upon,
'' and I have rendered the starry heavens visible, to teach him

5

50 THE AGE OF REASOiV.

*' science and the arts. He can now provide for his own comfort,

" AND LEARN FROM My MUNIFICENCE TO ALL, TO BE KIND TO EACH
" OTHER."

Of what use is it, unless it be to teach man something, that his
eye is endowed with the power of beholding, to an incomprt-hen-
sible distance, an immensity of worlds revolving in the ocean of
space ? Or of what use is it that tliis immensity of worlds is vis-
ible to man t ^Vilat has man to do with the Pleiades, with Orion,
with Sirius, with the star he calls the north star, with the moving
orbs he has named Saturn, Jupiter, IMars, Venus, and Mercury,
if no uses are to follow from tlieir being visible ? A less power of
vision would have been suflicient for man, if the immensity he
now possesses were given '-nly to waste itself, as it were, on an
immense desert of space glittering with shows.

It is only by contemplating what he calls the starry heavens, as
the book and school of science, that he discovers any use in their
being visible to him, or any advantage resulting from l)is immen-
sity of vision. But when he contemplates the subject in this
light, he sees an additional motive for saying, that nothing was
made in vain ; for in vain would be this power of vision if it taught
mail nothinji.

As the Christian system of faith has made a revolution in the-
ology, so also has it made a revolution in the state of learning.
That which is now called learning was not learning originally.
Learning does not consist, as the schools now make it consist, in
the knowled<re of lan'^uages, but in the knowledge of things to
which language gives names.

The Greeks were a learned people, but learning with them did
not consist in speaking Greek, any more than in a Roman's speak-
ing Latin, or a Frenchman's speaking French, or an Englishman's
epeaking English. From what we know of the Greeks, it does
not appear that they knew or studied any language but their own,
and tills was one cause of their becoming so learned ; it aflbrd-
ed them more time to api)ly themselves to better studies. The
schools of tlie Greeks were schools of science and philosophy,
and not of languages ; and it is in the knowledge of the things
that science and philosopliy teacii, that learning consists.

Almost all the scientific learning that now exists, came to us
from the Greeks, or the people who spoke the Greek language. —
It, tiicref jre, became necessary for tlie people of other nations,
who spoke a dilferent language, tliat some among them should
learn the Gr»;ek language, in order that the learning the Greeks
had, might be made known in those nations, by translating the
Greek booUs of science and philosophy into the mother tongue of
each nation.

Tiie study therefore of the Greek language (and in the same
wanner I'm- the Latm) was no otlier than tiie drudgery business
of a linguist ; and the language thus obtained, was no other than

THE ACE OP REASON, 51

the means, as it were the tools, employed to obtain the learning
the Greeks had. It made no part of the learning itself; and
was so distinct from it, as to make it exceedingly probable that
the persons who had studied Greek sufficiently to translate those
works, such, for instance, as Euclid's Elements, did not under-
stand any of the learning the works contained.

As there is now nothino; new to be learned from the dead Ian-
guages, all the useful books being already translated, the lan-
guages are become useless, and the time expended in teaching
and learning them is wasted. So far as the study of languages
may contribute to the progress and communication of knowledge,
(for it has nothing to do with the crccdion of knowledge,) it is
only in the living languages that new knowledge is to be found ;
and certain it is, that, in general, a youth will learn more of a
living language in one year, than of a dead language in seven ;
and it is but seldom that the teacher knows much of it himself.
The difficulty of learning the dead languages does not arise from
any superior abstruseness in the languages themselves, but in
their being dead, and the pronunciation entirely lost. It would
be the same thing with any other language when it becomes
dead. The best Greek linguist that now exists, does not under-
stand Greek so well as a Grecian ploughman did, or a Grecian
milkmaid ; and the same for the Latin, compared with a plough-
man or milkmaid of the Romans : It would therefore be advan-
tageous to the state of learning to abolish the study of the dead
languages, and to make learning consist, as it originally did, in
scientitic knowledge.

The apology that is sometimes made for continuing to teach the
dead languages is, that they are taught at a time, when a child is
not capable of exerting any other mental faculty than that of
memory ; but that is altogether erroneous. The human mind
has a natural disposition to scientific knowledge, and to the things
connected with it. The first and favorite amusement of a child,
even before it begins to play, is that of imitating the works of
man. It builds houses with cards or sticks ; it navigates the
little ocean of a bowl of water with a paper boat, or dams the
stream of a gutter, and contrives something which it calls a mill ;
and it interests itself in the fate of its works with a care that re-
sembles affection. It afterwards goes to school, where its genius
is killed by the barren study of a dead language, and the philoso-
pher is lost in the linguist.

But the apology that is now made for continuing to teach the
dead languages, could not be the cause, at first, of cutting down
learning to the narrow and humble sphere of linguistry ; the
cause, therefore, must be sought for elsewhere. In all research-
es of this kind, the best evidence that can be produced, is the in-
ternal evidence the thing carries with itself, and the evidence of

52 THE AGE OF REASON.

circumstances that unites with it ; both of which, in this case,
are not difficult to be discovered.

Putting then aside, as a matter of distinct consideration, the
outrage oflered to the moral justice of God, by supposing him to
make the innocent suffer for the guilty, and also the loose moral-
ity and low contrivance of supposing him to change himself into
the shape of a man, in order to make an excuse to himself for not
executing his supposed sentence upon Adam ; putting, I say,
those things aside, as matter of distinct consideration, it is cer-
tain that what is called the Christian system of faith, including
in it the whimsical account of the creation — the strange story of
Eve — the snake and the Apple — the ambiguous idea of a man-
god — the corporeal idea of the death of a god — the mythologi-
cal idea of a family of gods, and the Christian system of arithme-
tic, that three are one, and one is three, are all irreconcilable, not
only to the divine gift of reason, that God hath given to Man,
but to the knowledge that man gains of the power and wisdom of^
God, by the aid of the sciences, and by studying the structure of
the universe that God has made.

The setters-up, therefore, and the advocates of the Christian
system of faith, could not but foresee that the continually progres-
sive knowledge that man would gain, by the aid of science, of
the power and wisdom of God, manifested in the structure of the
universe, and in all the works of Creation, would militate against,
and call into question, the truth of their system of faith ; and
therefore it became necessary to their purpose to cut learning
down to a size less dangerous to their project, and this they ef-
fected by restricting the idea of learning to the dead study of
dead languages.

They not only rejected the study of science out of the Chris-
tian schools, but they persecuted it ; and it is only within about
the last two centuries that the study has been revived. So late
as 1610, Galileo, a Florentine, discovered and introduced the
use of telescopes, and by applying them to observe the motions
and appearance of the heavenly bodies, afl'orded additional means
for ascertaining the true structure of the universe. Instead of
being esteemed for those discoveries, lie was sentenced to re-
nounce them, or the opinions resulting from tliem, as a damnable
heresy. And prior to that time Yigilius was condemned to be
burned for asserting the antipodes, or in other words, that the
earth was a globe, and habitable in every part where there was
land ; yet the truth of this is now too well known even to be
told.

If the belicfof errors not morally bad did no mischief, it would
make no part of the moral duty of man to oppose and remove
them. There was no moral ill in believing the earth was flat like
a trencher, any more Ihan there was moral virtue in believing it
was round like a globe ; neitlicr was there any moral ill in be-

THE AGE OF REASON, 53

lievmg mat the Creator made no otlier world than this, any more
than there was moral virtue in beheving that he made miUions,
and that the infinity of space is filled with worlds. But when a
system of religion is made to grow out of a supposed system of
creation that is not true, and to unite itself therewith in a manner
almost inseparable therefrom, the case assumes an entirely differ-
ent ground. It is then that errors, not morally bad, become
fraught with the same mischiefs as if they were. It is then that
the truth, though otherwise indifferent itself, becomes an essen-
tial, l)y becoming the criterion, that either confirms by corres-
ponding evidence, or denies by contradictory evidence, the real-
ity of the religion itself'. In this view of the case, it is the moral
duty of man to obtain every possible evidence that the structure
of the heavens, or any other part of creation afibrds, with respect
to systems of religion. But this, the supporters or partizans of
the Christian system, as if dreading the result, incessantly oppo-
sed, and not only rejected the sciences, but persecuted the pro-
fessors. Had Newton or Descartes lived three or four hundred
years ago, and pursued their studies as they did, it is most proba-
ble they would not have lived to finish them ; and had Franklin
drawn lightning from the clouds at the same time, it would have
been at the hazard of expiring for it in flames.

Latter times have laid all the blame upon the Goths and Van-
dals ; but, however unwilling the partizans of the Christian sys-
tem may be to believe or to acknowledge it, it is nevertheless true,
that the age of ignorance commenced with the Christian system.
There was more knoAvledge in the world before that period, than
for many centuries afterwards ; and as to religious knowledge, the
Christian system, as already said, was only another species of my-
thology ; and the mythology to whicii it succeeded, was a corrup-
tion of an ancient system of theism.*

* It is impossible for us now to know at wluit time the licatlien mythology Legati ;
but it is certain, from the internal evidence that it carries, that it did not begin in
the same state or condition in which it ended. All the gods of that mytholoo;y,
except Saturn, were of modern invention. The supposed reign of Saturn was prior
to that which is called the heatiien mjihology, and was so far a species of theism,
that it admitted the belief of only one God. Saturn is supposed to have abdicated
the government in fiivour of his three sons and one daughter, Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune,
and Juno ; after this, thousands of other gods and demi-gods were imaginarily created,
and the calendar of gods increased as fast as the calendar of saints, and the calendars
of courts have increased since.

All the corruptions that have taken place, in theology and in religion, have been
produced by admitiing of what man calls revealed religion. The Mythologists pre-
tended to more revealed religion than the Christians do. They had tlieir oracles and
Jieir priests, who were supposed to receive and deliver the word of God verbally, on
almost all occasions.

Since then all corruptions drawn from Molock to modern predestinarianism, and
the human sacrifices of the heathens to the Christian sacrifice of tl>e Creator, have
been produced by admitting of what is called revealed religion, the most efifcctual
means to prevent all such evils and impositions is, not to admit of any other revelation
than that which is manifested in the book of creation, and to contemplate the creation
as the only true and real work of God ihat ever did, or ever will exist ; and that every
tiling else, called die word of God, is fable and imposition.

3*

54 THE AGE OF REASOX.

It IS owing to this long interregnum of science, and to no olher
cause, that we have now to look through a vast chasm of many
hundred years to the respectahle characters we call the ancients.
Had the progression of knowledge gone on proportionably with
the stock that before existed, that chasm would have been filled
up with characters rising superior in knowledge to each other ;
and those ancients we now so much admire, would have appeared
respectably in the back ground of the scene. But the Christian
system laid all waste ; and if we take our stand about the begin-
ning of the sixteenth century, we look back through that long
chasm, to the times of the ancients, as over a vast sandy desart,
in which not a shrub appears to intercept the vision to the fertile
hills beyond.

It is an inconsistency scarcely possible to be credited, that any
thing should exist, under the name of a religion, that held it to be
irreligiozis to study and contemplate the structure of the universe
that God had made. But the fact is too well established to be
denied. The event that served more than any other to break the
ficst link in this long chain of despotic ignorance, is that known
by the name of the Reformation by Luther. From that time,
though it docs not appear to have made any part of the intention
of Luther, or of those wiio arc called reformers, the sciences be-
gan to revive, and liberality, their natural associate, began to
appear. This was the only public good the reformation did
for, with respect to religious good, it might as well not liave taken
place. The mythology still continued the same ; and a mviltipli-
city of National Popes grew out of the downfal of. the Pope of
Christen dom.

Having thus shown from the internal evidence of things, the
cause tliat produced a change in the state of learning, and the
motive for substituting the study of the dead languages in the
place of the scienc-es, I proceed, in addition to the several obser-
vations already made in the former part of this work, to compare
or rather to confront the eviiUnce tliat the structure of the uni-
verse affords, wifli the Chrislian system of religion; but, as I
cannot begin this |)art better than by referring to the ideas that oc-
curred to me at an early part of life, and which I doubt not have
occurred in some degree to altnost every other person at one
time or other, I shall state what tliose idea,'; were, and add thereto
such other matter as shall arise out of the subject, giving to the
whole, by way of preface, a short iiitrndiu-tion.

My lather being of (lie Quaker proRssion, it was my good for-
tune to have an exceeding good moral education, and a tolerable
Block of Mscfiil learning. Tliougli I went fo the grammar school,*
I did not Icani Latin,- not only because I had no inclination to
learn languages, but because of the objection the Quakers have

* Tlip •■aiiu' !<(lioi.l, Tliclford in Norfolk, that die present Counsellor Wingay wcut
to, :uul umltT ilie same master.

THE AGE OF REASON. 55

ngainst the books in which the language is taught. But this did
not prevent me from being acquainted with the subjects of all the
Latin books used in the sciiool.

The natural bent of my mind was to science. I had some turn,
and I believe some talent for poetry ; but this I rather repressed
than encouraged, as leading too much into the field of imagination.
As soon as I was able, I purchased a pair of globes, and attend-
ed the philosophical lectures of Martin and Ferguson, and be-
came afterwards acquainted with Dr. Bevis, of the society, called
the Royal Society, then living in the Temple, and an excellent
astronomer.

I had no disposition for what is called politics. It presented to
my mind no other idea than is contained in the word Jockeyship.
When, therefore, I turned' my thoughts towards matters of gov-
ernment, I bad to form a system for myself, that accorded with the
moral and philosophic principles in which I had been educated.
I saw, or at least I thought I saw, a vast scene opening itself to
the world in the affairs of America ; and it appeared to me, that
unless the Americans changed the plan they were then pursuing,
with respect to the government of England, and declare themselves
independent, they would not only involve themselves in a multi-
plicity of new difficulties, but shut out the prospect that was then
offering itself to mankind through their means. It was from these
motives that I published the work known by the name of " Com-
mon Se/ise," which is the first work I ever did publish ; and so far
as I can judge of myself, I believe I should never have been
known in the world as an author, on any subject whatever, had it
not been for the affairs of America. I wrote " Common Sense^^
the latter end of the year 1775, and published it the first of January^
1776. Independence was declared the fourth of July following.

Any person, who has made observations on the state and pro-
gress of the human mind, by observing his own, cannot but have
observed, that there are two distinct classes of what are called
Thoughts ; those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and
the act of thinking, and those that bolt into the mind of their own
accord. I have always made it a rule to treat those voluntary
visitors with civility, taking care to examine, as well as I was able,
if they were worth entertaniing ; and it is from them I have ac-
quired almost all the knowledge that I have. As to the learning
that any person gains from school education, it serves only, like
a small capital, to put him in the way of beginning learning for
himself afterwards. Every person of learning is finally his own
teacher, the reason of which is, that principles, being of a distinct
quality to circumstances, cannot be impressed upon the memory ;
their place of mental residence is the understanding, and they
are never so lasting as when they begin by conception. Thus
much for the introductory part.

From the time I was capable of conceiving an idea, and acting

56 THE AGE OF REASON.

upon it by reflection, I citlicr doubted the truth of (lie Christian
system, or thought it to be a strange affair ; 1 scarcely knew which
it was : but I well remember, v, hen abouf seven or eight years of
age, hearing a sermon read by a relation of mine, who was a
great dev(;tee ol" the church, upon the subject of what is called
rtdar.pikn by llw' death cf the Son of God. After the sermon was
ended, I went into the garden, and as I was going down the o-ar-
dcn steps (for I perfectly reeol!ect the spot) I revolted at the re-*
collection of a\ hat I had heard, and thought to myself that it M-as
making Hod Almighty act like a passionate man that killed his
sen, when he could not revenge Iiimself any other way ; and as
I was sure a man would be hanged that did such a thing, I could
not see for what purpose lljuy preached such sermons. This was
not one of those kiiid ot' tlioughts that had any thing in it of
childish levity ; it was to me a serious reflection, arising liom the
idea I had, that God was too good to do such an action, and also
too almighty to be under any necessity of doing it. I believe in
the same manner at this moment ; and I moreover believe, that
any system of religion, that has any thing in it that shocks the
mind of a child, cannot- be a true system.

It seems as if parents cf the Christian profession were asham-
ed to tell their ehihhen any thing about the piinciples of their re-
ligion. They sometimes instruct them in morals, and talk to them
of the gdodness of what they call Providence ; for the Christian
jnythology has i\\c deities — there is Ccd the Father, God the
Son, God the Iloly Ghcet, the Gcd Providence, and the Goddess
Nature. But the Christian story of God the Father putting his
Hon to death, or employing people to do it (for that is the plain
language of the story) cannot be told by a parent to a child ; and
to tell him that it was done to malte mankind happier and better,
is making the story still worse, as if mankind could be improved
by the example of murder ; and to tell him that all tiiis is a mys-
tery, is only making an excuse for the incredibility of it.

Ilow dillerent is (bis to tlie pure' and simple profrssion of De-
ism! The true Deist has but one Deity; and his religion con-
sists in contemplating the power, wisdom, and benignity of the
Deity in his works, and in endeavoring to imitate liim in every
thing moral, scientilieal, ;.nd meclianical.

Tlie religion that aj)proaches the nearest of all others to true
Dei-sm in tlie moral and benign part (hereof, is that professed by
the (Quakers ; but (hey have contracted themselves too much, by
leavinjf (be works of God out of their svstem. 'JhoUiih I rever-
ence their philanthropy, I cannot ln-lp smiling at the conceit, that
if the taste of a (Quaker could have been (dnsult'-d at (be crea-
tion, what a silent and drab-coloured creation it would have been !
Not a flower would have blossomed its gaities, nor a bird been
permitttd to sing. «

Quitting these reflections, I proceed to other matters. After I

THE AGE OF REASON. 57

had made myself master of the use of the globes, and of the or-
rery,* and conceived an idea of the inlinity of space, and the
eternal divisibility of matter, and obtained, at least, a general
knowledge of what is called natural philosophy, I began to com-
pare, or, as I have before said, to coniront the eternal evidence
those things afford with the Christian system of faith.

Though it is not a direct article of the Christian system, that
this world that we inhabit, is the whole of the hal;ital)le creation,
yet it is so worked up therewith, from what is called the Mosaic
account of the Creation, the story of Eve and the apple, and the
counterpart of that story, the death of the sen of (jod, that to
believe otherwise, that is, to believe tliat Ccd created a })liuality
of worlds, at least as numerous as what we call s^tars, renders
the Christian system of faith at once little and ridiculous, and
scatters it in the mind like feathers in the air. The two beliefs
cannot be held together in the same mind ; and he who thinks
that he believes both, has thought but little of either.

Though the behef of a plurality of worlds was familiar to the
ancients, it is only within the last three centuries that the extent
and dimensions of this globe that we inhabit have been ascer-
tained. Several vessels following the tract of the ocean, have
sailed entirely round the world, as a man may march in a circle,
and come round by the contrary side of the circle to the spot he
set out from. The circular dimensions of our world, in the wid-
est part, as a man would measure the widest round of an apple
or a ball, is only twenty-five thousand and twenty English miles,
reckoning sixty-nine miles and an half to an equatorial degree,
and may be sailed round in the space of about three years.f

A world of this extent may, at first thought, appear to us to be
great ; but if we compare it with the immensity of space in which
it is suspended, like a bubble or balloon in the air, it is infinitely
less, in proportion, than the smallest grain of sand is to the size
of the world, or the finest particle of dew to the whole ocean,
and is therefore but small ; and as will be hereafter shown, is on-
ly one of a system of worlds, of which the universal creation is
composed.

It is not difiicult to gain some faint idea of the immensity of

* As this book may fall into the hands of persons wlio do not know what an orrei-y
is, it is fo4' their information I add lliis note, as the nunie gives no idea of t!ie uses of
tlie thing. The orrery has its name from tlie peison who invented it. It is a ma-
chinery of clock-work, representing the universe in miniature, and in which the revo-
lution of the earth round itself and round the sun, the revolution of the moon round
the earlli, the revolution of the planets round the sun, iheir relative distances from the
sun, as the centre of the whole system, their relative distances from each other, and
their difierent magnitudes, are represented as tliey really exist in what we call tho
heavens.

f Allowing a ship to sail, on an average, three miles in an hour, she would sail en-
tirely round the world in less than one year, if she could sail in a direct circle; but
she is oLlif'cd to follow the course of the ocean.

58 THE AGE OF UEASON.

space in which this and all the other worlds are suspended, if we
follow a progression of ideas. ^Vhen we think of the size or di-
mensions of a room, our ideas limit thenssclves to the walls, and
there they stop ; but when our eye, or our imagination darts into
space, that is, when it looks upwaid into what we call the open
air, we cannot conceive any walls or boundaries it can have ; and,
if for the sake of resting our ideas, we suppose a boundary, the
question immediately renews itself, and asks, what is beyond that
boundary ? and, in the same manner, what is beyond the next
boundary ? and so on, till the fatigued imagination returns and
says, llicrc is no aid. Certainly, then, the Creator was not pent
for room, when he made this world no larger than it is ; and w^e
have to seek the reason in something else.

If we take a survey (four own world, or rather of this, of which
the Creator has given us the use, as our portion in the immense
system of Creation, we find every part of it, the earth, the waters,
and the air that surrounds it, filled, and as it were, crowded witli
life, down from the largest animals that we know ol"to the smallest
insects the naked eye can behold, and from thence to others still
smaller, and totally invisible without the assistance of the micro-
scope. Every tree, every ])lanl, every leaf, serves not only as an
habitation, but as a world to some numerous race, till aninial ex-
istence becomes so exceedingly refined, that the eflluvia of a blade
of grass would be food for thousands.

Since then no part of our earth is left unoccupied, why is it to
be supposed that the immensity of space is a naked void, lyino- in
eternal waste ? There is room for millions of worlds as larfc or
larger than ours, and each of them millions of miles apart from
each other.

Having now arrived at this point, if we carry our ideas only
one thought farther, we shall see, perhaps, the true reason, at
least a very good reason, for our hajipine.ss : why the Creator,
instead of making one immense world, extending over an immense
quantify of space, has preferred dividing that quantity of matter
into several distinct and separate worlds, which we call planets,
of which our earth is one. IJut before I explain my ideas upon
this subject, it is necessary (not lor the sake of those that already
know, but for those who do not) to show what the system of the
universe is.

That part of the universe that is called the solar system (mean-
ing the system of worlds to which our earth belongs, and of which
Sol, or in English language, the Sun, is tiie centre) consists, be-
sides the Sun, of six distinct orbs, or planets, or worlds, besides
the secondary bodies, called the satelliles or moons, of which oth-
earth has one that ailends her in Ikm' atuiual revolution round the
sun, in like m.uiiH r jis the other salcllifes or moons attend the
planets or worlds lo which fliry severally belong, as may be seen
by the assistance of the feltscopc.

THE AGE OP REASON. 59

The Sun Is the centre, rountl which tliose six worlds or planets
revolve at dilierent distances tlierelVoui, and in circles concen-
trate to each other. Each world keeps constantly in nearly the
same track round the Sun, and continues, at the same time, turn-
ing round itself, in nearly an upright position, as a top turns
round itself when it is spinning on the ground, and leans a little
sideways.

It is this leaning of the earth (23 1-2 degrees) that occasions
summer and winter, and the different length of days and nights.
If the earth turned round itself in a position perpendicular to the
plane or level of the circle it moves in around the Sun, as a top
turns round when it stands erect on the ground, the days and
nights would be always of the same length, twelve hours day and
twelve hours night, and the seasons would be uniformly the same
throughout the year.

Every time that a planet (our earth for example) turns round
itself, it makes what we call day and night ; and every time it
goes entirely round the Sun, it makes what we call a year, con-
sequently our world turns three hundred and sixty-tive times round
itself, in going once round the sun.*

The names that the ancients gave to those six worlds, and
which are still called by the same names, are Mercury, Venus, this
world that we call ours. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. They ap-
pear larger to the eye than the stars, being many millions miles
nearer to our earth than any of the stars are. The planet A'^enus
is that which is called the evening star, and sometimes the morn-
ing star, as she happens to set after, or rise before the Sun,
which, in either case, is never more than three hours.

The Sun, as before said, being the centre, the planet, or world,
nearest the Sun, is Mercury ; his distance from the Sun is thir-
ty-four million miles, and he moves round in a circle always at
that distance from the Sun, as a top may be supposed to spin
round in the track in which a horse goes in a mill. The second
world is Venus, she is fifly-seven million miles distant from the
Sun, and consequently moves round in a circle much greater than
that of Mercury. The third world is that we inhabit, and which
is eighty-eight million miles distant from the Sun, and conse-
quently moves round in a circle greater than that of Venus. —
The fourth world is Mars; he is distant from the Sun one hundred
and thirty-four million miles, and consequently moves round in a
circle greater than that of our earth. The fifth is Jupiter; he is
distant from the Sun five hundred and fifty-seven million miles,
and consequently moves round in a circle greater than that of
Mars. The sixth world is Saturn, he is distant from the Sun seven
hundred and sixty-three million miles, and consequently moves

* Those who supposed that the Sun went round the earth every 24 hours made tlie
same mistake in idea that a cook would do in fact, that should make the fire go round
the meat, instead of the meat turning round itself towards the fire.

60 THE AGE OF REASON.

round in a circle that surrounds the circles, or orbits, of all the
othei worlds or planets.

The space, thereibre, in the air, or in the immensity of space,
that our solar system takes up for tlie several worlds to perform
their revolutions in round the Sun, is of the extent in a straight
line of the whole diameter of the orbit or circle, in which Saturn
moves round the Sun, which being double his distance from the
Sun, is fifteen hundred and twenty-six million miles ; and its cir-
cular extent is nearly five tliousand million ; and its globical con-
tent is almost three thousand five hundred million times three
thousand five hundred milhon square miles.*

But this, immense as it is, i:s only one system of worlds. Beyond
this, at a vast di::-tancc into sp.ace, far beyond all power of calcula-
tion, are the stars called the fixed stars. They are called fixed,
because they have no revolutionary motion, as the six worlds or
j)lanets have that I have been describing. Those fixed stars con-
tinue always at the same distance from each other, and always in
the same place, as the sun does in the centre of our system. The
probability, therefore, is, that each of those fixed stars is also a
sun, round which another system of worlds or planets, though too
remote for us to discover, performs its revolutions, as our system
of worlds does round our central sun.

By this easy progression of ideas, the immensity of space wiM
appear to us to be filled with systems of worlds ; and that no part
of space lies at waste, any more than any part of the globe or earth,
and water is left unoccupied.

Having thus endeavoured to convey, in a familiar and easy man-
ner, some idea of the structure of the universe, I return to explain
what I before alluded to, namely, the great benefits arising to man
in consequence of the Creator having made a pluralthj of worlds,
such as our system is, consisting of a central sun and six worlds,
besides satellites, in preference to that of creating one world only
of a vast extent.

It is an idea I have never lost sight of, that all our knowledge
of science is derived from the revolutions (exhibited to our eye,
and fronj thence to our understanding) which those sevcial planets

* If It shoul.l l)e a.«k('(l, liow r.in in:in know those t!lil)g^ 1 I li;ive one plain answer
to give, wliicli is, that man know.s how to calculalc an eclips^e, ami also how to calcu-
late to a minute of lime wlicn the planet W'ihis, in making her revoliitioii.s roiimi tlie
Sun, will romc in a stiaijrht line between oin- earth and the .^nn, ami will appear to
us ahout t!ic nizo of a large pea pa.-sing across the face of the Sim. This happcna
l)«t twice in ahoiit an hinnhed ^ears, at the di.^tanee of about eight years from each
other, and has happcnc-d twice in our time, both of wliirh were foreknown by calcula-
tion. It can also be known when tliev will happen again for a thousand years to
come, or to any ollr r portion of lime. As, lh(Mifore, man could not be aili! to Ho
these things if he did not Uiidei stand the solar system, and the manner in which the
iTvolnlions (,( the several planel.s or woiMs are perfoin«;d, the fact of calciduling an
eclipse, or a transit of Venus, is a proof in point that the knowleilge exists ; and an to
a few thousand, or even a few million milud, more or less, it uukcs scarcely any seB-
niblc Jillcicncc in such inmieii-e distances.

THE AGE OF REASON. 61

or worlds, of which our system is composed, make in their circuit
round the sun.

Had then the quantity of matter which these sLx worlds contain
been blended into one solitary globe, the consequence to us would
have been, that either no revolutionary motion would been exist-
ed, or not a sufficiency of it to give us the idea and the knowledge
of science we now have ; and it is from the sciences that all the
mechanical arts that contributes so much to our earthly felicity
and comfort, are derived

As, therefore, the Creator made nothing in vain, so also must it
be believed that he organized the structure of the universe in the
most advantageous manner for the benefit of man ; and as we see,
and fiom experience feel, the benefits we derive from the struc-
ture of the universe, formed as it is, which benefits we should not
have had the opportunity of enjoying, if the structure, so far as
relates to our system, had been a solitary globe — we can discover
at least one reason why a ■pluraliiy of worlds has been made, and
that reason calls forth the devotional gratitude of man, as well as
his admiration.

But it is not to us, the inhabitants of mis globe, only, that the
benefits arising from a plurality of worlds are limited. The in-
habitants of each of the worlds of which our system is composed,
enjoy the same opportunities of knowledge as we do. They be-
hold the revolutionary motions of our earth, as we behold theirs.
All the planets revolve in sight of each other ; and, therefore, the
same universal school of science presents itself to all.

Neither does the knowledge stop here. The system of worlds
next to us exhibits, in its revolutions, the same principles and
school of science, to.the inhabitants of their system, as our system
does to us, and in like manner throughout the immensity of space.

Our ideas, not only of the almightiness of the Creator, but of
his wisdom and his beneficence, become enlarged in proportion
as we contemplate the extent and the structure of the universe.
The solitary idea of a solitary world, rolling or at rest in the im-
mense ocean of space, gives place to the cheerful idea of a soci-
ety of worlds, so happily contrived as to administer, even by their
motion, instruction to man. We see our own earth filled with
abundance ; but we forget to consider how much of that abun-
dance is owing to the scientific knowledge the vast machinery of
the universe has unfolded.

But, in the midst of those reflections, what are we to think of
the Christian system of faith, that forms itself upon the idea of ©nly
one world, and that of no greater extent, as is before shown, than
twenty-five thousand miles ? An extent which a man, walking at
the rate of three miles an hour, for twelve hours in the day, could
he keep on in a circular direction, would walk entirely round in
less than two years. Alas ! what is this to the mighty ocean of
space, and the almighty power of the Creator !
6

g2 THE AGE OF REASON.

From whence then could arise the solitary and strange conceit,
that the Almighty, who had millions of worlds equally dependent
on his protection, should quit the care of all the rest, and come to
die in our world, because, they say one man and one woman had
eaten an apple ! And, on the other hand, are we to suppose that
every world in the boundless creation, had an Eve, an apple, a
serpent and a redeemer ? In this case, the person who is irrever-
ently called the Son of God, and sometimes God himself, would
have nothing else to do than to travel from world to world, in an
endless succession of death, with scarcely a momentary interval
of life.

It has been by rejecting the evidence, that the word or works
of God in the creation affords to our senses, and the action of our
reason upon that evidence, that so many wild and whimsical sys-
tems of faith, and of religion, have been fabricated and set up.
There may be many systems of religion, that so far from being
morally bad, are in many respects morally good : but there can be
but ONE that is true ; and that one necessarily must, as it ever
will, be in all things consistent with the ever existing word of God
that we behold i»» his works. But such is the strange construction
of the Christian system of faith, that every evidence the Heavens
afford to man, either directly contradicts it, or renders it absurd.

It is possible to believe, and I always feel pleasure in encour-
aging myself to believe it, that there have been men in the world
who persuade themselves that, what is called a. pious fraud, might,
at least under particular circumstances, be productive of some
good. But the fraud being once established, could not afterwards
be explained ; for it is with a pious fraud as with a bad action, it
begets a calamitous necessity of going on.

The persons who first preached the Christian system of faith,
and in some measure combined it with the morality preached by
Jesus Christ, might persuade themselves that it was better than
the heathen mythology that then prevailed. From the first
preachers the fraud went on to the second, and to the third, till
the idea of its being a pious fraud became lost in the belief of its
being true ; and that belief became again encouraged by the in-
terest of those who made a livelihood by preaching it.

But though such a belief might, by such means, be rendered
almost general among the laity, it is next to impossible to acount
for the continual persecution carried on by the church, for seve-
ral hundred years, against the sciences, and against the profess-
ors of sciences, if the church had not some record or tradition,
that it was originally no other than a pious fraud, or did not fore-
see, that it could not be maintained against the evidence that the
structure of the universe afforded.

Having thus .shown the irreconcilable inconsistencies between
the r(!al word of God existing in the universe and that which is
called the uord of God, as shewn to us in a printed book that any

THE AGE OF REASON. 63

man might make, I proceed to speak of the three principal means
that have been employed in all ages, and perhaps in all countries,
to impose upon mankind.

Those three means are Mystery, Miracle, and Prophecy. The
two first are incompatible with true religion, and the third ought
always to be suspected.

With respect to mystery every thing we behold is, in one sense,
a mystery to us. Our own existence is a mystery ; the whole
vegetable world is a mystery. We cannot account how it is that
an acorn, when put into the ground, is made to develope itself,
and become an oak. We know not how it is that the seed we
sow unfolds and multiplies itself, and returns to us such an abun-
dant interest for so small a capital.

. The fact, however, as distinct from the operating cause, is not
a mystery, because we see it ; and we know also the means we
are to use, which is no other than putting seed in the ground.
We know, therefore, as much as is necessary for us to know; and
that part of the operation that we do not know, and which if we
did we could not perform, the Creator takes upon himself and
performs it for us. We are, therefore, better off than if we had
been let into the secret, and left to do it for ourselves.

But though every created thing is, in this sense, a mystery, the
word mystery cannot be applied to inoral truth, any more than ob-
scurity can be applied to light. The God in whom we believe is a
God of moral truth, and not a God of mystery or obscurity. Mys-
tery is the antagonist of truth. It is a fog of human invention, that
obscures truth, and represents it in distortion. Truth never en-
velopes itself in mystery ; and the mystery in which it is at any
time enveloped is the work of its antagonist, and never of itself.

Religion, therefore, being the belief of a God, and the practice
of moral truth, cannot have connection with mystery. The belief
of a God, so far from having any thing of mystery in it, is of all
beliefs the most easy, because it arises to us, as is before observed,
out of necessity. And the practice of moral truth, or, in other
words, a practical imitation of the moral goodness of God, is no
other than our acting towards each other as he acts benignly to-
wards all. We cannot serve God in the manner we serve those
who cannot do without such service ; and therefore the only idea
we can have of serving God, is that of contributing to the happi-
ness of the Uving creation that God has made. This cannot be
done by retiring ourselves from the society of the world, and spend-
ing a recluse life in selfish devotion.

The very nature and design of religion, if I may so express it,
prove, even to demonstration, that it must be free from every thing
of mystery, and unincumbered with every thing that is mysterious.
Religion, considered as a duty, is incumbent upon every living soul
alike, and, therefore, must be on a level to the understanding and
comprehension of all. Man does not learn religion as he learns

6-4 THE AGE OF REASOX.

the secrets and mysteries of a trade. He learns the theory of
rehgion by reflection. It arises out of the action of his own mind
upon the things which he sees, or upon what he may happen to
hear or to read, and the practice joins itself thereto.

When men, whether from policy, or pious fraud, set up systems
of religion incompatible with the word or works of God in the cre-
ation, and not only above, but repugnant to human comprehen-
sion, they were under the necessity of inventing or adopting a
word that should serve as a bar to all questions, inquiries, and
speculations. The word mijsterij answered this purpose ; and thus
it has happened that religion, which in itself is without mystery,
has been corrupted into a fog of mysteries.

As mijsterij answered all general purposes, miracle followed as
an occasional auxiliary. The former served to bcAvilder the mind ;
the latter to puzzle the senses. The one was the lingo, the other
the ledgerdemain.

But before going further into this subject, it will be proper to
inquire what is to be understood by a miracle.

In the same sense that every thing may be said to be a mystery,
so also may it be said that every thing is a miracle, and that no one
thing is a greater miracle than another. The elephant, though lar-
ger, is not a greater miracle than a mite: nor a mountain a greater
miracle than an atom. To an Almighty power, it is no more diffi-
cult to make the one than the other ; and no more difficult to
make a million of worlds than to make one. Every thing, there-
fore, is a miracle in one sense, whilst in the other sense, there is
no such thing as a miracle. It is a miracle when compared to our
power, and to our comprehension ; it is not a miracle compared
to the power that performs it ; but as nothing in this description
conveys the idea that is affixed to the word miracle, it is necessary
to carry the inquiry further.

Mankind hare conceived to themselves certain laws, by which
what they call nature is supposed to act ; and that a miracle is
something contrary to the operation and effect of those laws ; but
unless we know the whole extent of those laws, and of what are
commonly called the powers of nature, we are not able to judge
whether anything that may appear to us wonderful or miraculous,
be within, or be beyond, or be contrary to her natural power of
acting.

The ascension of a man several miles high into the air, would
have every thing in it that constitutes the idea of a miracle, if it
were not known that a species of air can be generated several times
lightC'T tlmn tlie common atmospheric air, and yet possess elasticity
enough to prevent the balloon, in which that light air is enclosed,
from being compressed into as many times less bulk, by the com-
mon air that .'surrounds it. In like manner, extracting flames or
sparks of tire from the human body, as visible as from a steel struck
with a flint, and causing iron or steel to move without any visible

THE AGE OF REASON. 6$

agent, would also give the idea of a miracle, if we were not ac-
quainted with electricity and magnetism ; so also would many other
experiments in natural philosophy, to thosie who are not acquaint-
ed with the subject. The restoring persons to life, who are to ap-
pearance dead, as is practised upon drowned persons, would also
be a miracle, if it were not known that animation is capable of be-
ing suspended without being extinct.

Besides these, there are performances by slight of hand, and
oy persons acting in concert, that have a miraculous appearance,
which when known, arc thought nothing of. And, besides these,
there are mechanical and optical deceptions. There is noAV an ex-
hibition in Paris of ghosts or spectres, which, though it is not im-
posed upon the spectators, as a fact, has an astonishing appearance.
As, therefore, we know not the extent to which eitlier nature or
art can go, there is no criterion to determine what a miracle is ;
and mankind, in giving credit to appearances, under the idea
of their being miracles, are subject to be continually imposed
upon.

Since then appearances are so capable of deceiving, and things
not real have a stronji resemblance to things that are, nothino; can
be more inconsistent than to suppose that the Almighty would
make use of means, such as are called miracles, that would sub-
ject the person who performed them to the suspicion of being an
impostor, and the person who related them to be suspected of ly-
ing, and the doctrine intended to be supported thereby to be su.s-
pected as a fabulous invention.

Of all the modes of evidence that ever were invented to obtain
belief to any system or opinion to which the name of religion
has been given, that of miracle, however successful the imposition
may have been, is the most inconsistent. For, in the first place,
whenever recourse is had to show, for the purpose of procuring
that belief, (for a miracle, under any idea of the word, is a show)
it implies a lameness or weakness in the doctrine that is preach-
ed. And, in the second place, it is degrading the Almighty into
the character of a show-man, playing tricks to amuse and make
the people stare and wonder. It is also the most equivocal sort of
evidence that can be set up ; for the belief is not to depend upon
the thing called a miracle, but upon the credit of the reporter, who
says that he saw it ; and, therefore, the thing, were it true, would
have no better chance of being believed than if it were a lie.

Suppose I were to say, that when I sat down to write this book,
a hand presented itself in the air, took up the pen and wrote every
word that is herein written ; would any body believe me.'' certain-
ly they would not. Would they believe me a whit the more if the
thing had been a fact ; certainly they would not. Since then a
real miracle, were it to happen, would be subject to the same fate
as the falsehood, the inconsistency becomes the greater, of sup-
posing the Almighty would make use of means that would not an-

6*

66 THE AGE OF REASON.

swer the purpose for which they were intended, even if they
were real.

If we are to suppose a miracle to be something so entirely out
efthe course of whart is called nature, that she must go out of that
course to accomplish it, and we see an account given of such mira-
cle by the person who said he saw it, it raises a question in the
mind very easily decided, which is, is it more probable that nature
should go out of her course, or that a man should tell a lie ? We
have never seen, in our time, nature go out of her course ; but we
have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told in
the same time ; it is tliercfore, at least millions to one, that the re-
porter of a miracle tells a lie.

The story of the whale swallowing Jonah, though a whale is
large enough to do it, borders greatly on the marvellous ; but it
would have approaclicd nearer to the idea of miracle, if Jonah
had swallowed the whale. In this, which may serve for all cases
of miracles, the matter would decide itself, as before stated, name-
ly, it is more probable that a man should have swallowed a whale
or told a lie.

But supposing that Jonah had really swallowed the whale, and
gone with it in his belly to Ninevah, and to convince the people
that it was true, have cast it up ia their sight, of the full length and
size of a whale, would they not have believed him to have been
the devil instead of a prophet ? or, if the whale had carried Jonah
to Ninevah, and cast him up in the same public manner, would
they not have believed the whale to have been the devil, and
Jonah one of his imps ?

The most extraordinary of all the things called miracles, related
in the New Testament, is that of the devil flying away with Jesus
Christ, and carrying him to the top of a high mountain ; and to the
top of the highest pinnacle of the temple, and showing him and
promising to him all the kingdoms of the world. How happened it
that he did not discover America ; or is it only with kingdoms that
his sooty highness has any interest ?

I have too much respect for the moral character of Christ, to
believe that he told this whale of a miracle himself; neither is it
easy to account for what purpose it could have been fabricated, un-
less it were to impose upon the connoisseurs of miracles, as is
goHictimes practised upon the connoisseurs of Queen Anne's far-
thmgs, and collectors of relics and antiquities; or to render the
belief of miracles, ridiculous, by outdoing miracles, as Don Quix-
otte outdid chivalry ; or to embarrass the belief of miracles, by
making it d()Jil)tful by what power, wliether of God or the Devil,
anything called a miraeh' was performed. It requires, however,
a great deal of faith in the devil to believe this miracle.

In every point of view in which those things called miracles can
be placed and considered, the reality of them is improbable, and
their existence unnecessary. They would not, as before observed,

THE AGE OF BEASOX. $7

answer any useful purpose, even if they were true ; for it is more
difficult to obtain belief to a miracle, than to a principle evidently
moral, without any miracle. Moral principle speaks universally for
itself. Miracle could be but a thing of the moment, and seen but by
a few ; after this it requires a transfer of faith from God to man, to
believe a miracle upon man's report. Instead therefore of admit-
ting the recitals of miracles as evidence of any system of religion
being true, they ought to be considered as symptoms of its being
fabulous. It is necessary to the full and upright character O'f tri'th,
that it rejects the crutch ; and it is consistent with the character
of fable, to seek the aid that truth rejects. Thus much for mys-
tery and miracle.

As mystery and miracle took charge of the past and the present,
prophecy took charge of the future^ and rounded the tenses of
faith. It was net sutiicient to know what had been done, but M'hat
would be done. The supposed prophet was the supposed histori-
an of times to come ; and if he happened, in shooting with a long
bow of a thousand years, to strike within a thousand miles of a
mark, the ingenuity of posterity could make it point-blank ; and if
he happened to be directly wrong, it was only to suppose, as in the
case of Jonah and Ninevah, that God had repented himself and
changed his mind. "What a fool do fabulous systems make of
man !

It has been shown, in a former part of this work, that the ori-
ginal meaning of the words prophet and prGphesying has been chan-
ged, and that a prophet, in the sense of the word as now used, is a
creature of modern invention ; and it is owing to this change in the
meaning of the words, that the flights and metaphors of the Jew-
ish poets and phrases and expressions now rendered obscure, by
our not being acquainted with the local circumstances to which
they applied at the time they were used, have been erected into
prophecies, and made to bend to explanations, at the will and whim-
sical conceits of sectaries, expounders and commentators. Every
thing unintelligible was prophetical, and every thing insignificant
was typical. A blunder would have served as a prophecy ; and a
dish-clout for a type.

If by a prophet we are to suppose a man, to whom the Almighty
communicated some event that would take place in future, either
there were such men, or there were not. If there were, it is con-
sistent to believe that the event so communicated, would be told
in terms that could be understood ; and not related in such a loose
and obscure manner as to be out of the comprehensions of those
that heard it, and so equivocal as to fit almost any circumstance
that might happen afterwards. It is conceiving very irreverently
of the Almighty to suppose he would deal in this jesting manner
with mankind ; yet all the things called prophecies- in the book
called the Bible, come under this description

But it is with prophecy as it is with miracle ; it could not an»

68 THE AGE OF BEASON.

swer the purpose even if it were real. Those to whom a prophecy
should be told, could not tell whether the man prophesied or lied,
or whether it had been revealed to him, or whether he conceited
it ; and if the thing that he prophesied, or intended to prophecy,
should happen, or something like it, among the multitude of things
that arc daily happening, nobody could again know whether he
foreknew it, or guessed at it, or whether it was accidental. A
prophet, therefore, is a character useless and unnecessary ; and
the safe side of tlie case is, to guard against being imposed upon
by not giving credit to such relations.

Upon the whole, mystery, miracle, and prophecy, are appen-
dages that belong to fabulous and not to true religion. They are
the means by which so many Lo herts .' and Lo ihcres ! have been
spread about the world, and religion been made into a trade. —
The success of one impostor gave encouragement to another, and
the quieting salvo of doing some good by keeping up a pious fraud,
protected tiiem from remorse.

Having now extended the subject to a greater length than I first
intended, I shall bring it to a close by abstracting a summary from
the whole.

First — That the idea or belief of a word of God, existing in
print, or in writing, or in speech, is inconsistent in itself for rea-
sons already assigned. These reasons, among many others, are
the want of an universal language ; the mutability of language ;
the errors to which translations are subject ; the possibility of to-
tally suppressing such a word ; the probability of altering it, or of
fabricating the whole, and imposing it upon the world.

Secondly — That the Creation we behold is the real and ever
existing word of God, in which we cannot be deceived. It pro-
claims his power, it demonstrates his wisdom, it manifests his
goodness and beneficence.

Thirdly — That the moral duty of man consists in vmitating the
moral goodness and beneficence of God manitestcd in the Creation
towards all his creatures. That seeing as we daily do the goodness
of God to all men, it is an example calling upon all men to practise
the same towards each other ; and consefpicntly that every thing
of persecution and revenge between man and man, and every
thing of cruelty to animals, is a violation of moral duty.

I trdubk; not myself about tlie manner of i'uture existence. I
content myself with believing, even to jxisitive conviction, that
the power that gave me existence is able to continue it, in any
form and manner lie jjleases, either with or witliout this body ; and
it appears more j)robable to me tiiat I shall continue to exist here-
after, than that I should have had existence, as I now have, be-
fore that existence began

It is certain that, in one point, all nations of the eni1h and all re-
ligions agree ; all bflicyr in a (iod ; the things in which they dis-
agree, are the redundancies annexed to that belief; and therefore,

THE AGE OF REASON 69

if ever an universal religion should prevail, it will not be believing
any thing new, but in getting rid of redundancies, and believintr
as man believed at first. Adam, if ever there was such a maiT,
was created a Deist ; but in the mean time, let every man follow,
as he has a right to do, the religion and worship he prefers.

END OF THE FIRST PART

THE

4GE OF REASON.

PART THE SECOND

PREFACE.

I HAVE mentioned in the former part of The Jige of Reason, that
it had long been my intention to publish my thoughts upon reli-
gion ; but that I had originally reserved it to a later period in life,
intending it to be the last work I should undertake. The circum-
stances, however, which existed in France in the latter end of
the year 1793, determined me to delay it no longer. The just
and humane principles of the revolution, which philosophy had
first diffused, had been departed from. The idea, always dan-
gerous to society as it is derogatory to the Almighty, that priests
could forgive sins, though it seemed to exist no longer, had blunt-
ed the feelings of humanity, and callously prepared men for the
commission of all manner of crimes. The intolerant spirit of
church persecutions had transferred itself into politics ; the tribu-
nal, styled revolutionary, supplied the place of an inquisition;
and the guillotine and the stake outdid the fire and foggot of the
church. 1 saw many of my most intimate friends destroyed ; oth-
ers daily carried to prison ; and I had reason to believe, and had
also intimations given me, that the same danger was approaching
myself

Under these disadvantages, I began the former part of the ^c
of Reason ; I had, besides, neither Bible nor Testament to refer
to, though I was writing against both ; nor could I procure any ;
notwithstanding which, I have produced a work that no Bible
believer, though writing at his ease, and with a library of church
books about him, can refute. Towards the latter end of December
of that year, a motion was made and carried, to exclude foreigners
from the Convention. There were but two in it, Anacharsis
Cloots and myself; and I saw, I was particularly pointed at by
Bourdon de FOise, in his speech on that motion.

Conceiving, after this, that I had but a few days of liberty, I
sat down and brought the work to a close as speedily as possible ;
and I had not finished it more than six hours, in the state it has
since appeared, before a guard came there about three in the
morning, with an order signed by the two committees of public
safety and surety-general, for putting me in arrestation as a for-
eigner, and conveyed me to the prison, of the Luxembourg. I
contrived, in my way there, to call on Joel Barlow, and I put the
7

74

PREFACE,

manuscript of the work into his hands, as more safe than in my
possession in prison ; and not knowing what miglit be the f;ite in
France, either of the writer or the work, I addressed it to the pro-
tection of the citizens of the United States.

It is with justice that I say, that the guard who executed this
order, and the inter[>reter of the Committee of General Surety,
who accompanied them to examine my papers, treated me not only
with civility but with respect. The keeper of the Luxembourg,
Bennoit, a man of a good heart, showed to me every friendship in
his power, as did also all his family, while he continued in that
station. He was removed Irom it, put into a\ Testation, and carried
before the tribimal upon a malignant accusation, but acquitted.

After I had been in t!ie Luxembourg about three weeks, the
Americans, then in Paris, went in a body to the Convention, to
reclaim me as their countryman and friend ; but were answered by
the President, Yader, who was also President of the Committee
of Surety-General, and had signed the order for my arrestation,
that 1 was born in England. I heard no more after this, from any
person out of the walls of the prison, till the fall of Robespierre,
on the 9th of Thermidor— July 27, 1794.

About two months before this event, I was seized with a fever,
that in its progress had every symptom of becoming mortal, and
from the etfects of which I am not recovered. It was then that I
remembered with renewed satisfaction, and congratulated myself
most sincerely, on having written the former part of" The JJge of
Reason.''^ I had then but little expectation .f surviving, and those
about me had less. I know, therefore, by experience, the con-
scientious trial of my own principles.

I was then ^vith three chamber comrades, Joseph Vanhuele, of
Bruges, Charles Bastini, and Michael Robyns, of Louvain. The
unceasing and anxious attention of these three friends to me, by
night and by day, I remember with gratitude, and mention with
pleasure. It happened that a physician (Dr. Graham) and a sur-
geon (INIr. Bond), part of the suite of General O'Hara, were then
in the Luxembourg. I ask not myself, whether it be convenient
to them, as men imder the English government, that I express to
them my thanks ; but I should reproach myself if I did not ; and
also to the physician of the Luxembourg, Dr. INIarkoski.

I have some reason to believe, because I cannot discover any
other cause, that this illness preserved me in existence. Amon^r
the papers of Robespierre that were examined and reported upon
to the Convention, by a Committee of De])uties, is a note in the
hand-writing of Robespierre, in the following words : —

" Demanderqjtc Thomas Paiuc
soil decrctc d^arcusatiou, pour Pin-
Icret de l\flmcriquc aulcuU que de
la France. ^^

To demand that a decree of ac-
cusation he passed as^ainsl Thom-
as Paine, for lite inlcresl ofJimer-
icOj as iceil as (f France

rUEFACE. "iS

From what cause it was that the intention was not put in exe-
cution, I know not, and cannot inform myself; and therefore I
ascribe it to impossibihty, on account of that illness.

The Convention, to repair as much as lay in their power the in-
justice I had sustained, invited me publicly and unanimously to re-
turn into the Convention, and which I accepted, to show I could
bear an injury without permitting it to injure my principles, or my
disposition. It is not because right principles have been violated,
that they are to be abandoned.

I have seen, since I have been at liberty, several publications
written, some in America, and some in England, as answers to the
former part of " The Age of Reason." If the authors of these
can amuse themselves by so doing, I shall not interrupt them —
They may write against the work, and against me, as much as they
please ; they do me more service than they intend, and I can have
no objection that they write on. They will find, however, by this
second part, without its being written as an answer to them, that
they must return to their work, and spin their cobweb over again.
The first is brushed away by accident.

They will now find that I have furnished myself with a Bible
and Testament ; and I can say also, that I have found them to be
much worse books than I had conceived- If I have erred in any
thing, in the former part of the Age of Reason, it has been by
speaking better of some parts of those books than they have de-
served.

I observe, that all my opponents resort, more or less, to. what
they call Scripture evidence and Bible authority, to help them
out. They are so little masters of the subject, as to confound a
dispute about authenticity with a dispute about doctrines ; I will,
however, put them right, that if they should be disposed to write
any more, they may know how to begin.

•^ THOMAS PAINE.

October J 1795.

THE

AGE OF REASON,

PART THE SECOND.

IT has often been said, that any thing may be proved from the
Bible, but before any thing can be admitted as proved by the Bible,
the Bible itself must be proved to be true ; for if the Bible be not
true, or the truth of it be doubtful, it ceases to have authority, and
cannot be admitted as proof of any thing.

It has been the practice of all Christian commentators on the Bi-
ble, and of all Christian priests and preachers, to impose the Bible
on the world as a mass of truth, and as the word of God ; they have
disputed and wrangled, and have anathematized each other about
the supposable meaning of particular parts and passages therein ;
one has said and insisted that such a passage meant such a thing ;
another that it meant directly the contrary ; and a third, that it
meant neither one nor the other, but something different from both;
and this they call understanding the Bible.

It has happened, that all the answers which I have seen to the
former part of the Age of Reason have been written by priests ;
and these pious men, like their predecessors, contend and wrangle,
and pretend to understand the Bible ; each understands it different-
ly, but each understands it best ; and they have agreed in nothing,
but in telling their readers that Thomas Paine understands it not.

Now instead of wasting their time, and heating themselves in
fractious disputations about doctrinal points drawn from the Bible,
these men ought to knoAv, and if they do not, it is civility to inform
them, that the first thing to be understood is, whether there is suf-
ficient authority for believing the Bible to be the word of God, or
whether there is not.

There are matters in that book, said to be done by the express
command of God, that are as shocking to humanity, and to every
idea we have of moral justice, as any thing done by Robespierre,
by Carrier, by Joseph le Bon, in France, by the English govern-
ment in the East-Indies, or by any other assassin in modern times.
When we read in the books ascribed to Moses, Joshua, &.c. that
they (the Israelites) came by stealth upon whole nations of people,
who, as the history itself shows, had given them no offence ; that

1*

78 THE AGE OF REASON.

ihey put all Ihosc nafioiis to the stvord ; that they spared neither age nor
infancy ; that they utterly destroyed men, u-omen and children ; thai
they left not a soul to breathe ; expressions that are repeated over
and over again in those books, and that too with exulting ferocity ;
are we sure these things are facts ? Are we sure that the Creator
of man commissioned these things to be done ? Are we sure that
the books that tell us so were written by his authority ?

It is not the antiquity of a tale that is any evidence of its truth ;
on the contrary, it is a symptom of its being fabulous ; for the more
ancient any history pretends to be, the more it has the resemblance
of a fable. The origin of every nation is buried in fabulous tra-
dition, and that of the Jews is as much to be suspected as any oth-
er. To char«-e the commission of acts upon the Almighty, which
in their own nature, and by every rule of moral justice, are crimes,
as all assassination is, and more especially the assassination of in-
fants, is matter of serious concern. The Bible tells us, that those
assassinations were done by the express command of God. To be-
lieve, therefore, the Bible to be true, we must unbelicve all our be-
lief in the moral justice of God ; for wherein could crying or smil-
ing infants offend ? And to read the Bible without horror, we must
undo every thing that is tender, sympathising, and benevolent in
the heart of man. Speaking for myself, if I had no other evidence
that the Bible is fabulous, than the sacrifice I must make to be-
lieve it to be true, that alone would be sufficient to determine my
choice. But, in addition to all the moral evidence against the Bi-
ble, I will, in the progress of this work, produce such other evi-
dence, as even a priest cannot deny ; and shew, from that evidence,
that the Bifele is not entitled to credit, as bcinjT the word of God

But, before I proceed to this examination, I will show wherein
the Bible differs from all other ancient writings with respect to the
nature of the evidence necessary to establish its authenticity ; and
tliis is the more proper to be done, because the advocates of the
Bible, in their answers to the furmer part of the Jige of Reason,
undertake to say, and they put some stress thereon, that the au
thcnticity of the Bible is as well established as that of any other
ancient book ; as if our belief of the one could become any rule
for our belief of the other.

I know, however, but of one ancient book that authoritatively
challenges universal consent and belief, and that is Euclid''s Ele-
ments of Geometry ;* and the reason is, because it is a book of self^
evident demonstration, entirely ind("])ondcnt of its author, and of
every thing r("lating to time, place and circumstance. The mat-
ters contained in that book would have the same authority they
now have, had they been written by any other j)erson, or had the
work been anonymous, or had the author never l)een known ; for
the identical certainty of who was the author, makes no part of our

♦ Euclid, according to rhronologicni history, lived three hundred years before Christ,
and about one hundred bc-fure Archimedes ; he was of llie city of Alexandria, in £g}'pt.

THE AGE OF REASON. 79

belief of the matters contained in the book. But it is quite other-
wise with respect to the books ascribed to Moses, to Joshua, to
Samuel, &c. those are books of testimony, and they testify of
things naturally incredible ; and therefore the whole of our be-
lief, as to the authenticity of those books, rests, in the first place,
upon the certainty that they were written by Moses, Joshua, and
Samuel ; secondly, upon the credit we give to their testimony.
We may believe the first, that is, we may believe the certainly
of the authorship, and yet not the testimony ; in the same man-
ner that we may believe that a certain person gave evidence
upon a case, and yet not believe the evidence that he gave.
But if it should be found, that the books ascribed to Moses, Josh-
ua, and Samuel, were not written by Moses, Joshua, and Sam-
uel, every part of the authority and authenticity of those books
is gone at once ; for there can be no such thing as forged
or invented testimony ; neither can there be anonymous tes-
timony, more especially as to things naturally incredible ;
such as that of talking with God face to face, or that of the sun
and moon standing still at the command of a man. The greatest
part of the other ancierit books are works of genius ; of which
kind are those ascribed to Homer, to Plato, to Aristotle, to De-
mosthenes, to Cicero, &.c. Here again the author is not an es-
sential in the credit we give to any of those works ; for, as works
of genius, they would have the same merit they have now, were
they anonymous. • Nobody believes the Trojan story, as related
by Homer, to be true — for it is the poet only that is admired ;
and the merit of the poet will remain, though the story be fabu-
lous. But if we disbelieve the matters related by the Bible au-
thors, (Moses for instance) as we disbelieve the things related
by Homer, there remains nothing of Moses in our estimation,
but an impostor. As to the ancient historians from Herodotus
to Tacitus, we credit them as far as they relate things probable
and credible, and no further ; for if we do, we must believe the
two miracles which Tacitus relates were performed by Vespa-
sian, that of curing a lame man, and a blind man, in just the
same manner as the same things are told of Jesus Christ by his
historians. We must also believe the miracle cited by Josephus,
that of the sea of Pamphilia opening to let Alexander and his
army pass, as is related of the Red Sea in Exodus. These mir-
acles are quite as well authenticated as the Bible miracles, and
yet we do not believe them ; consequently the degree of evi-
dence necessary to establish our beljpf of things naturally in-
credible, whether in the Bible or elsewhere, is far greater than
that which obtains our belief to natural and probable things ;
and therefore the advocates for the Bible have no claim to our
belief of the Bible, because that we believe things stated in oth-
er ancient writings ; since we believe the things stated in these
writings no further than they are probable and credible, or be-

80 THE AGE OF REASON.

cause they are self-evident, like Euclid ; or admire them be-
cause they are elegant, like Homer ; or approve them because
they are sedate, like Plato ; or judicious, like Aristotle.

Having premised these things, I proceed to examine the au-
thenticity of the Bible, and I begin with what are called the five
books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, JVumbers, and Deii-
teronomij. INIy intention is to show that those books are spuri-
ous, and that Moses is not the author of them ; and still further,
that they were not written in the time of Moses, nor till several
hundred years afterwards ; that they are no other than an at-
tempted history of the life of Moses, and of the times in which he
is said to have lived, and also of the times prior thereto, written
by some very ignorant and stupid pretenders to authorship, sev-
eral hundred years after the death of Moses, as men now write
histories of things that happened, or are supposed to have hap-
pened, several hundred or several thousand years ago.

The evidence that I shall produce in this case is from the
books themselves ! and I will confine myself to this evidence
only. — Were I to refer for proof to any of the ancient authors,
whom the advocates of the Bible call profane authors, they
would controvert that authority, as I controvert theirs ; I will
therefore meet them on their own ground, and oppose them with
their own weapon, the Bible.

In the first place, there is no affirmative evidence that Moses
is the author of those books ; and that he is the author, is alto-
gether an unfounded opinion, got abroad nobody knows how.
The style and manner in which those books are written, give no
room to believe, or even to suppose, they were written by Moses ,
for it is altogether the style and manner of another person speak-
ing of Moses. In Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, (for every
thing in Genesis is ])rior to the time of Moses, and not the least
allusion is made to him therein) the whole, I say, of these books
is in the third person ; it is always, ilic Lord said unto Moses, or
Moses said unto Ihe Lord ; or Moses said unfo the ])eopIe, or the
peopte said unto Muses ; and this is the style and maimer that his-
torians use, in speaking of the person whose lives and actions
they are writing. It may be said that a man may speak of him-
self in the third person ; and therefore it may be supposed that
Moses did ; but su[)position proves nothing ; and if tiie advocates
for the belief that Moses wrote those books himself, have nothing
better to advance than supposition, thov may as well be silent.

But granting tlie graniiiiatical right, tl)at 3Ioses might speak of
himself in the third person* because any man might speak of him-
self in tliat manner, it cannot be admitted as a fact in those books,
that it is Moses wlio speaks, without rendering Moses truly ridicu-
lous and absurd: — for example. Numb. chap. xii. ver. 3. " JVbu' the
man Moses teas vei'ij meek, (d)ore all the uicn rrliich u'erc on Ihe face
of the earth.'''' If Moses said this of himself, instead of being the

THE AGE OF REASOiV. 81

meekest of men, ne was one of the most vain and arrogant of
coxcombs ; and the advocates for those books may now take
which side they please, for both sides are against them ; if Bloses
was not the author, the books are without authority ; and if he
was the author, the author was witliout credit, because to boast
of meelcness, is the reverse of meekness, and is a lie in senlhnent.

In Deuteronomy, the style and manner of writing marks more
evidently than in tlie former books, that Moses is not the writer.
The manner here used is dramatical ; the writer opens the sub-
ject by a short introductory discourse, and then introduces Mo-
ses in the act of speaking, and v/hen he has made Moses finish
his harangue, he (the writer) resumes his own part, and speaks
till he brings JMoses ibrward again, and at last closes the scene
with an account of the death, funeral, and character of Moses.

This interchange of speakers occur four times in this book ;
flom the first verse of the first chapter, to the end of the fifth
verse, it is the writer who speaks ; he then introduces Moses as
in the act of making his harangue, and this continues to the end
of the 40th verse of the fourth chapter ; here the writer drops
Moses, and speaks historically of what was done in consequence
of what Moses, when living, is supposed to have said, and which
the writer has dramatically rehearsed.

The writer opens the subject again in the first verse of the fifth
chapter, though it is only by saying, that Moses called the peo-
ple of Israel together ; he then introduces Moses as before, and
continues him, as in the act of speaking, to the end of the 26th
chapter. He does the same thing at the beginning of the 27th
chapter ; and continues Moses, as in the act of speaking, to the
end of the 28th chapter. At the 29th chapt<?r the writer speaks
again through the whole of the first verse, and the first line of the
second verse, where he introduces Moses for the last time, and
continues him, as in the act of speaking, to the end of the 33d
chapter.

The writer having now finished the rehearsal on the part of
Moses, comes forward, and speaks through the whole of the last
chapter ; he begins by telling the reader, that Moses went up to
the top of Pisgah ; that he saw from thence the land which (the
writer says) had been promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ;
that he, Moses, died there, in the land of Moab, but that no
man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day, that is, unto the
time in which the writer lived, who wrote the book of Deuterono-
my. The writer then tells us, that Moses was 110 years of age
when he died — that his eye was not dim, nor his natural force
abated ; and he concludes by saying, that there arose not a pro-
phet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom, says this anonymous
writer, the Lord knew face to face.

Having thus shown, as far as grammatical evidence applies,
that Mosos was not the writer of those books, I will, after mak-

82 THE AGE OF REASON*

ing a few observations on the inconsistencies of the writer of the"
book of Deuteronomy, proceed to show, from the historical and
chronological evidence contained in those books, that Moses was
not J because he could not he, the writer of them ; and consequent-
ly, that there is no authority for believing, that the inhuman and
horrid butcheries of men, women, and children, told in those books,
were done, as those books say they were, -at the command of
God. It is a duty incumbent on every true Deist, that he vindi-
cate the moral justice of God against the calumnies of the Bible.

The writer of the book of Deuteronomy, whoever he was, (for
it is an anonymous work) is obscure, and also in contradiction with
himself, in the account he has given of Moses.

After telling that Moses went to the top of Pisgah (and it does
not appear from any account that he ever came down again) he
tells us, that Moses died there in the land of Moab, and that he
buried him in a valley in the land of Moab ; but as there is no an-
tecedent to the pronoun he, there is no "knowing who he was that
did bury him. If the writer meant that he (God) buried him, how
should he (the writer) know it ? or why should we (the readers)
believe him } since we know not who the writer was that tells
'' us so, for certainly Moses could not himself tell where he was
buried.

The writer also tells us, that no man knoweth where the sepul-
chre of Moses is unto this day, meaning the time in which this wri-
ter lived ; how then should lie know that Moses was buried in a
valley in the land of Moab ? for as the writer lived long after the
time of Moses, as is evident from his using the expression of unto
this day, meaning a great length of time after the death of Moses,
he certainly was not at Jiis iiineral ; and on the other hand, it is
impossible that Moses himself could say, that no man knoweth where
the sepidchre is unto this day. To make INIoscs the speaker, would
be an improvement on the play of a ciiild tliat hides himself, and
cries nobody can find nie ; nobody can find JNIoscs.

This writer has no where told us how he came by the speeches
which he has put into the mouth of Moses to speak, and therefore
we have a riglit to conclude, that he either composed tliem him-
self, or wrote them from oral tradition. One or other of these is
the more probable, since he has given, in the fifth cliapter, a ta-
ble of commandments, in wliidi that called the fourtli command-
ment is difl'e re ijt from the fourth commaiulment in the twentieth
chapter of Ex()dus. In tliat of E.xodus, the reason given for keep-
ing the seventh day is, "because (says the commandment) God
made the heavens and the eartli in six days, and rested on the
seventh ;" but in that of Deuteronomy, the reason given is, that
it was the day on which the ciiildren of Israel came out of Egypt,
and therefore, says this commandment, the Lord Ihy God command-
ed thee to Iceep the sahbaih-day. This makes no mention of the cre-
ation, nor that of the coming out of Egypt. There arc also many

THE AGE OF REASON. 83

things given as laws of Moses in this book, that are not to be
found in any of the other books ; among which is that inhuman
and brutal law, chap. xxi. ver, 18, 19, 20, 21, which authorizes
parents, the father and the mother, to bring their own children
to have them stoned to death, for what it is pleased to call stub-
bornness. But priests have always been fond of preaching up
Deuteronomy, for Deuteronomy preaches up tythes ; and it is
fiom this book, chap. xxv. ver. 4, they have taken the phrase, and
applied it to tything, that thou shall not muzzle the ox when he Ucad-
eth out the corn ; and that this might not escape observation, they
have noted it in the table of contents at the head of the chapter,
though it is only a single verse of less than two lines. O priests !
priests ! ye are willing to be compared to an ox, for the sake of
tythes. Though it is impossible for us to know identicalhj who
the writer of Deuteronomy was, it is not difficult to discover him
professionally, that he was some Jewish priest, who lived, as I
shsill show in the course of this work, at least three hundred and
fifty years after the time of Moses.

I come now to speak of the historical and chronological evi-
dence. The chronology that I shall use is the Bible chronology ;
for I mean not to go out of the Bible for evidence of any thing,
but to make the Bible itself prove historically and chronologically,
that Moses is not the author of the books ascribed to him. It in
therefore proper that I inform the reader, (such an one at least'
as may not have an opportunity of knowing it,) that in the larger
Bibles, and also in some smaller ones^ there is a scries of chro-
nology printed in the margin of every page, for the purpose of
showing how long the historical matters stated in each page hap-
pened, or are supposed to have happened, before Christ, and con-
sequently the distance of time between one historical circumstance
and another.

I begin with the book of Genesis. In the 14th chapter of Gen-
esis, the writer gives an account of Lot being taken prisoner in a
battle between the four kings against five, and carried off; and
that when the account of Lot being taken, came to Abraham, he
armed all his household, and marched to rescue Lot from the cap-
tors ; and that he pursued them unto Dan, (ver. 14.)

To show in what manner this expression of pursuing than nnfo
Dan applies to the case in question, I will refer to two circum-
stances, the one in America, the other in France. The city now
called New-York, in America, was originally New Amsterdam ;
and the town in France, lately called Havre JVIarat, was before
called Havre de Grace, New Amsterdam was changed to New-
York in the year 1664 ; Havre de Grace to Havre Marat in the
year 1793. Should, therefore, any writing be found, though with-
out date, in which the name of New- York should be mentioned,
it would be certain evidence that such writing could not have been
written before, and must have been written after New Amsterdam

84 THE AGE OF REASON,

was changed to New-York, and consequently not till after the
year 1664, or at least during the course of that year. And, in
like manner, any dateless writing, with the name of Havre Marat,
would be certain evidence that sucli a writing must have been
written after Havre de Grace became Havre Marat, and conse-
quently not till after the year 1793, or at least during the course
of that year.

I now come to the application of tlioso cases, and to show that
there was no such place as Dan, till many years after the death of
Moses ; and consequently that Moses could not be the writer of
the book of Genesis, wliere this account of pursuing them unto
Dan is given.

The place that is called Dan in the Bible was originally a town
of the (Jciitiles, called Laish ; and when the tribe of Dan seized
upon this town, they changed its name to Dan, in commemoration
of Dan, who was the father of that tribe, and the great grandson of
Abraham.

To establish this in proof, it is necessary to refer from Genesis
to the 18th chapter of the book called the book of Judges. It is
there said (vcr. 27) that they (the Danites) come unto Laixh to a
people that U'crc quid and secure, and they smote them loith the edge of
the sivord (the Bible is filled with murder) and burned the city ivith
fire ; and they built a city, (ver. 28) and dwelt therein, ami they
called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dun, their father,
hou'bcit the name of the city ivas Laish at the first.

This account of the Danites taking possession of Laish and
changing it to Dan, is placed in (he book of Judges immediately
after the death of Sampson. The death of Sampson is said to
have happened 1 120 years before Christ, and that of Moses 1451
before Christ ; and therefore, according to the historical arrange-
ment, the place was not called Dan till 331 years after the death
of Moses.

Tliere is a striking confusion between the historical and the
chronological arrangtanent in the Book of Judges. Tiie five last
chapters, as they stand in the book, 17, 13, 19, 20, 21, are put
chronologically before all the preceding chapters ; they are made
to be 28 years l)cfore the ICth chiii)tcr, 266 before the loth, 245
before the latli, 195 before the 9th, 90 before tlie Itii, and 15 years
before tlie l.st chapter. This shows the uncertain and fabulous
state of the Bible. Accordiii'r to the cln-onojojrical arran'rcment,
the taking of Laish, and giving it the name of Dan, is made to be
iJO years after the<lc.'ith ot" Josbua, who was tlie successor of Mo-
ses ; and by the historical order as it stands in the book, it is made
to be 306 years after tlic death of Joshua, and 3.31 after that of
Moses ; but they l)otli exchide Moses (Vom being the writer of
Genesis, because, according to either of the statements, no such
place as Dan existed in the time of Moses ; and tliercfore tlie writ-
er of Genesis must have been some person who lived after the

THE AGE OF REASON 85

town of Laish had the name of Dan ; and who that person was,
nobody knows ; and consequently the book of Genesis is anony-
mous and without authority.

I proceed now to state another point of historical and chrono-
logical evidence, and to show therefrom, as in the preceding case,
that Moses is not the author of the book of Genesis.

In the 36th chapter of Genesis there is given a genealogy of
the sons and descendants of Esau, who are called Edomites, and
also a list by name, of the kings of Edom ; in enumerating of
which, it is said, ver. 31, ^^Jlnd these are tJie kings that reigned in
EdmUy before there reigned any king over the children of Israel.''^

Now, were any dateless writings to be found, in which, speak-
ing of any past events, the writer should say, these things happen-
ed before there was any Congress in America, or before there
was any Convention in France, it would be evidence that such
writing could not have been written before, and could only be
written after there was a Congress in America, or a Convention in
France, as the case might be ; and consequently that it could not
be Avritten by any person who died before there was a Congress
in the one country, or a Convention in the other.

Nothing is more frequent as well in history as in conversation
tlian to reler to a fact in the room of a date : it is most natural so
to do, because a fact fixes itself in the memory better than a date ;
secondly, because the feet includes the date, and serves to excite
two ideas at once ; and this manner of speaking by circumstances
implies as positively that the fact alluded to is past, as if it was so
expressed. * When a person, speaking upon any matter, says, it
was before I was married, or before my son was born, or before
I went to America, or before I went to France, it is absolutely un-
derstood, and intended to be understood, that he has been marri-
ed, that he has had a son, that he has been in America, or been
in France. Language does not admit of using this mode of ex-
pression in any other sense ; and whenever such an expression is
found any where, it can only be understood in the sense in which
only it could have been used.

The passage, therefore, that I have quoted — "that these are the
kings that reigned in Edom, before there reigned any king over the
children of Israel," could only have been written after the first
king began to reign over them ; and consequently that the book of
Genesis, so far from having been written by Moses, could not have
been written till the time of Saul at least. This is the positive
sense of the passage ; but the expression, any king, implies more
kings than one, at least it implies two, and this will carry it to the
time of David ; and, if taken in a general sense, it carries itself
through all the times of the Jewish monarchy.

Had we met with this verse in any part of the bible that prqfess-
ed to have been written after kings began to reign in Israel, it
would have been impossible not to have seen the application of it.
8

86 THE AGE OF REASON.

It happens then that this is the case ; the two booKs of Chronicles,
which gave a history of all the kings of Israel, axe professedly, as
well as in fact, written after the Jewish monarchy began ; and this
verse that I have quoted^ and all the remaining verses of the 36th
chapter of Genesis, are, word for word, in the first chapter of
Chronicles, beginning at the 43d verse.

It was with consistency that the writer of the Chronicles could
say, as he has said, 1st Chron. chap. i. ver. 43, These are the Icings
ihat reigned in Edom, before there reigned any king over the children
rf Israel, because he was going to give, and has given, a list ofthe
kings that had reigned in Israel ; but as it is impossible that the
same expression could have been used before that period, it is as
certain as any thing can be proved from historical language, that
this part of Genesis is taken from Chronicles, and that Genesis
is not so old as Chronicles, and probably not so old as the book
of Homer, or as il-lisop's Fables, admitting Homer to have been,
as the tables of Chronology state, contemporary with David or
Solomon, and ilisop to have lived about the end of the Jewish
monarchy.

Take away from Genesis the belief that Moses was the author,
on which only the strange belief that it is the word of God has
stood, and there remains nothing of Genesis but an anonymous
book of stories, fables, and traditionary or invented absurdities, or
of downright lies. Tlie story of Eve and the serpent, and of
Noah and his ark, drops to a level with the Arabian Tales, with-
out the merit of being entertaining ; and the account of men living
to eight and nine hundred years becomes as fabulous as the im-
mortality of the giants ofthe Mythology.

Besides, the character of Moses, as stated in the Bible, is the
most horrid that can be imagined. If those accounts be true, he
was the wretch that first began and carried on wars on the score,
or on the pretence of religion ; and under that mask, or that infatu-
ation, committed the most unexampled atrocities that are to be
found in the history of any nation, of which I will state only one
instance

When the Jewish army returned from one of their plundering
and murdering excursions, the account goes on as follows, Num-
bers, chap. x.\.\i. ver. 13.

"And Moses, and Elcazer the priest, and all the princes ofthe
congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp ; and
Moses was wrath witli the officers ofthe host, with the captains
over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the
battle ; and Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the ivomcn
alivel behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the
council of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the
matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation
ofthe Lord. Now, tlicrefore, kill cvenj male among the lillle ones,
and kill tverij woman thai hath knowii a man by lying with him ; Ind

THE AGE OF REASON, 87

all the women children that have not known a man by lying with him
keep alive for yourselves.

Among the detestable villains that in any period of the world
have disgraced the name of man, it is impossible to find a greater
than Moses, if this account be true. Here is an order to butcher
Ihe boys, to massacre the mothers, and debauch the daughters.

Let any mother put herself in the situation of those mothers ;
one child murdered, another destined to violation, and herself in
the hands of an executioner : let any daughter put herself in the
situation of those daughters, destined as a prey to the murderers
of a mother and a brother, and what will be their feelings ? It is
in vain that we attempt to impose upon nature, for nature will have
her course, and the religion that tortures all her social ties is a
false religion.

After this detestable oruer, follows an account of the plunder
taken, and the manner of dividing it ; and here it is that the pro-
faneness of priestly hypocrisy increases the catalogue of crimes.
Verse 37, "Jnd the Lord's tribute of the sheep was six hundred
and three score and fifteen ; and the beeves was thirty and six
thousand, of which tlie Lord''s tribute was three score and tuelve ;
and the asses were thirty thousand, of which the Lord's tribute
was three score and one ; and the persons were thirty thousand,
of which the Lord's tribute was thirty and two." In short, the mat-
ters contained in this chapter, as well as in many other parts of
(he Bible, are too horrid for humanity to read, or for decency to
hear ; for it appears, from the 35th verse of this chapter, that the
numl)er of women-children consigned to debauchery by the order
of IMoses was thirty-two thousand.

People in general know not what wickedness there is in this
pretended word of God. Brought up in habits of superstition,
they talve it for granted that the Bible is true, and that it is good ;
they permit themselves not to doubt of it, and they carry the ideas
they form of the benevolence of the Almighty to the book which
they have been taught to believe was written by his authority.
Cood heavens ! it is quite another thing ; it is a book of lies, wick-
edness, and blasphemy ; for what can be greater blasphemy, than
to ascribe the wickedness of man to the orders of the Almighty ?

But to return to my subject, that of showing that Moses is not
the author of the books ascribed to him, and that the Bible is spu-
rious. The two instances I have already given would be suffi-
cient, without any additional evidence, to invalidate the authentici-
ty of any book that pretended to be four or five hundred years more
ancient than the matters it speaks of or refers to as facts ; for in
the case of pursuino- them unto Dan, and o? the kings that reigned
over the children of Israel, not even the flimsey pretence of prophe-
sy can be pleaded. The expressions are in the preter tense, and
it would be downright ideotisni to say that a nian co-uld prophesy
in the preter tense.

83 THE AGE OF REASON.

But there are many other passages scattered throughout those
books that unite in the same point of evidence. It is said in Exo-
dus, (another of the books ascribed to Moses) chap. xvi. ver. 34,
"And the children of Israel did eat mannsiuntil they came lo a land
inhabited ; they did eat manna until they came unto the borders of the
land of Canaan.

Whether the children of Israel ate manna or not, or what man-
na Avas, or whether it was any thing more than a kind of fungus
or small mushroom, or other vegetable substance common to that
part of the country, makes nothing to my argument ; all that I
mean to show is, that it is not Moses that could write this account,
because the account extends itself beyond the life and time of
Moses. Moses, according to the Bible, (but it is such a book of
lies and contradictions there is no knowing which part to believe,
or whether any) dies in the wilderness, and never came upon the
borders of the land of Canaan ; and consequently it could not be
he that said what the children of Israel did, or what they ate when
they came there. This account of eating manna, which they tell
us was written by Moses, extends itself to the time of Joshua, the
successor of Moses, as appears by the account given in the book
of Joshua, after the children of Israel had passed the river Jor-
dan, and came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. Joshua,
chap. V. ver. 12. '■'■And the manna ceased on the morroiv, after they
had eaten of the old corn of the land ; neither had the children of Is-
rael manna any more, but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Cana-
an that ?/ear."

But a more remarkable instance than this occurs in Deuterono-
my ; which, while it shows that Moses could not be the writer of
that book, shows also the fabulous notions that prevailed at that
time about giants. In the third chapter of Deuteronomy, among
the conquests said to be made by Moses, is an account of the tak-
ing of Og, king of Bashan, ver. 1 1. "For only Og, king of Ba-
shan, remained of the race of giants ; behold, his bedstead was a
bedstead of iron ; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon?
nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits' the breadth of
it, after the cubit of a man." A cubit is 1 foot 9 888-lOOOths
inches ; the length, therefore, of the bed was 16 feet 4 inches, and
the breadth 7 feet 4 inches ; tijus much for this giant's bed. Now
for the historical part, which though the evidence is not so direct
and positive, as in the former cases, it is nevertheless very pre-
sumable and corroborating evidence, and is better than the best ev-
idence on the contrary side.

The writer, by way of proving the existence of this giant, refers
to his bed, as an ancient relic, and says, is it not in Rabbath (or
Rabbah) of the children of Ammon ? meaning that it is ; for such
is frequently the Bible method of affirming a thing. But it could
not be Moses that said this, because Moses could know nothing
about Rabbah, nor of what was in it. Rabbah was not a city be-

THE AGE OF REASON. 89

longing to this giant king, nor was it one of the cities that Moses
took. The knowledge, therefore, that this bed was at Rabbah,
and of the particulars of its dimensions, must be referred to the
time when Rabbah was taken, and this was not till four hundred
years after the death of Moses ; for which, see 2 Sam. chap. xji.
ver. 26. "And Joab (David's general) fought against Rabbah of
the children of Amman, and took the royal city."

As I am not undertaking to point out all the contradictions in
time, place and circumstance, that abound in the books ascribed to
Moses, and which prove to a demonstration that those books could
not be written by JMoses, nor in the time of Moses ; I proceed to
the book of Joshua, and to show that Joshua is not the author of
that book, and that it is anonymous and without authority. The
evidence I shall produce is contained in the book itself; I will not
go out of the Bible for proof against the supposed authenticity of
the Bible. False testimony is always good against itself

Joshua, according to the first chapter of Joshua, was the imme-
diate successor of Moses ; he was moreover a military man, which
Moses was not, and he continued as chief of the people of Israel
25 years ; that is, from the time that Moses died, which, accord-
ing to the Bible chronology, was 1451 years before Christ, until
1426 years before Christ, when, according to the same chronology,
Joshua died. If, therefore, we find in this book, said to have been
written by Joshua, reference to facts done after the death of Josh-
ua, it is evidence that Joshua could not be the author ; and also
that the book could not have been written till after the time of the
latest fact which it records. As to the character of the book, it
is horrid ; it is a military history of rapine and murder, as savage
and brutal as those recorded of his predecessor in villany and hy-
pocrisy, Moses ; and the blasphemy consists, as m the former
books, in ascribing those" deeds to the orders of the Almighty.

In the first place, the book of Joshua, as is the case in the pre-
ceding books, is written in the third person ; it is the historian of
Joshua that speaks, for it would have been absurd and vain-glori-
ous that Joshua should say of himself, as is said of him in the last
verse of the sixth chapter, that ^'^ his fame teas noised throughout
all the country.'''' I now come more immediately to the proof.

In the 24th chapter, ver. 31, it is said, " that Israel served the
Lord all the days of Joshua, and all tlie days of the ciders that over-
lived Joshua^ Now, in the name of common sense, can it be
Joshua that relates what people had done after he was dead? This
account must not only have been written by some historian that
lived after Joshua, but that lived also after the elders that out-
lived Joshua.

There are several passages of a general meaning with respect

to time, scattered throughout the book of Joshua, that carries the

time in which the book was written to a distance from the time of

Joshua, but without marking by exclusion any particular time, as

8*

90 THE AGE OF BEASOK.

in the passage above quoted. In that passage, the time that in-
tervened between the death of Joshua and the death of the elders
is excluded descriptively and absolutely, and the evidence sub-
stantiates that the book could not have been written till after the
death of the last.

But though the passages to which I allude, and which I am go-
ing to quote, do not designate any particular time by exclusion,
they imply a time far more distant from the days of Joshua, than is
contained between the death of Joshua and the death of the elders.
Such is the passage, chap. x. ver. 14 ; where, after giving an ac-
count that the sun stood still upon Gibeon, and the moon in the
valley of Ajalon, at the command of Joshua (a tale only fit to a-
muse children) the passage says, "And there was no day like that,
before it, nor after it, that the Lord barkened to the voice of a man."

This tale of the sun standing still upon Mount Gibeon, and the
moon in the valley of Ajalon, is one of those fables that detects itself
Such a circumstance could not have happened without being known
all over the world. One half vvould have wondered why the sun
did not rise, and the other why it did not set ; and the tradition of
it would be universal, whereas there is not a nation in the world
that knows any thing about it. But why must the moon stand
still ? What occasion could there be for moon-light in the day-time,
and that too while the sun shined ? As a poetical figure, the whole
is well enough ; it is a kin to that in the song of Deborah and Ba-
ruk. The stars in their courses fow^lit af^ainst Siscra ; but it is in-
ferior to the figurative declaration of Mahomet, to the persons Avho
came to expostulate with him on his going on. Wert fhoti, said he,
to come to me with the sun in thy right hand and the moon in ihj hjt^
it should not alter my career. For Joshua to have exceeded Ma-
homet, he should have put the sun and moon one in each pocket,
and carried them as Guy Faux carried his dark lanthorn, and tak-
en them out to shine as he might happen to want them.

The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related that
it is difticult to class them separately. One step above the sub-
lime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes
the sublime again : the account, however, abstracted from the
poetical fancy, shows the ignorance of Joshua, for he should have
commanded the earth to have stood still.

The time implied by the expression aflcr it, that is, after that
day, being put in comparison with all the time that passed before
it, must, in order to give aay expressive signification to the pas-
sage, mean a p^rcat length of time : — for example, it would have
been ridiculous to have said so the next day, or the next week, or
the next month, or the next year ; to give, therefore, meaning to
the passage, comparative with the wonder it relates, and the prior
time it alludes to, it must mean centuries of years ; less, however,
than one would be trifling, and less than two would be barely ad-
missible.

THE AGE OF REASON. 91

A distant, but goneral time, is also expressed in the 8th chap-
ter ; wliere, after giving an accoiyit of the taking of the city of
Ai, it is said, ver. 28th, " And Joshua burned Ai, and made it an
heap for ever, a desolation tinto {his day ;" and again, ver, 29th,
where, speaking of the king of Ai, whom Joshua had hanged, and
buried at the entering of the gate, it is said, " And he raised there-
on a great heap of stones, wiiich remaineth unto this day," that
is, unto the day or time in which the writer of the book of Joshua
lived. And again, in the 10th chapter, where, after speaking of
the five kings whom Jeshua had hanged on five trees, and then
throun in a cave, it is said, "And he laid great stones on the cave's
mouth, which remain unto this very day."

In enumerating the several exploits of Joshua, and of the tribes,
and of the places which they conquered or attempted, it is said, c
XV. ver. 63, " As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the children of Judah could not drive them out ; but the Jebusites
dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.''^ The
question upon this passage is, at what time did the Jebusites and
the children of Judah dwell together at Jerusalem ? As this matter
occurs again in the first chapter of Judges, 1 shall reserve my ob-
.servations till I come to that part.

Having thus shown from the book of Joshua itself, without any
auxiliary evidence whatever, that Joshua is not the author of that
book, and that it is anonymous, and consequently without author-
ity. I proceed, as before mentioned, to the book of Judges.

The book of Judges is anonymous on the face of it ; and there-
Pore even the pretence is wanting io call it the word of God ; it has
not so much as a nominal vouclier ; it is altogether fatherless.

This book begins with the same expression as the book of Josh-
ua. That of Joshua begins, chap. i. ver. 1, A'o/o after the death of
Moses, Sf-c. and this of Judges begins, JVow ajier the death of Josh-
ua, Sic. This, and the similarity of style between the two books,
indicate that they are the Avork of the same author ; but who be
was, is altogether unknown : the only point that the book proves
is, that the author lived long after the time of Joshua ; for though
it begins as if it followed immediately after his death, the second
chapter is an epitome or abstract of the whole book, which, accord-
ing to the Bible chronology, extends its history through a space
of 306 years ; that is, from the death of Joshua, 1426 years before
Christ, to the death of Sampson, 1120 years before Christ, and
only 25 years before Saul went to seek his father'' s asses, and loas
made }cin<^. But there is good reason to believe, that it was not
written till the time of David at least, and that the book of Joshua
was not written before the same time.

In the first chapter of Judges, the writer, after announcing the
death of Joshua, proceeds to tell what happened between the chil-
dren of Judah and the native inhabitants of the land of Canaan.
In this statement, the writer, having abruptly mentioned Jerusalem

92 THE AGE OF REASON.

in the 7th verse, says immediately after, in the 8th verse, by way
of explanation, "Now the children of Judah had fought against
Jerusalem, and takc7i it ;" consequently, this book could not have
been written before Jerusalem had been taken. The reader will
recollect the quotation I have just before made from the I.5th chap-
ter of Joshua, ver. 63, where it is said, that the Jebitsitcs dwell with
the children of Judah cd Jerusalem at this day; meaning the time
when the book of Joshua was written.

The evidence I have already produced, to prove that the books
I have hitherto treated of were not written by the persons to whom
they arc ascribed, nor till many years after their death, if such
persons ever lived, is already so abundant, that I can afil>rd to ad-
mit this passage with less weight than I am entitled to draw from
it. — For the case is, that so far as the Bible can be credited as an
history, the city of Jerusalem was not taken till the time of David;
and consequently, that the books of Joshua, and of Judges, were
not written till after the commencement of the reign of David,
which was 370 years after the death of Joshua.

The name of the city, that was afterwards called Jerusalem,
was originally Jebus or Jebusi, and was the capital of the Jebu-
sites. The account of David's taking the city is given in 2 Sam-
uel, chap. V. ver. 4, &c. ; also in 1 Chron. chap. xiv. ver. 4, &c.
There is no mention in any part of the Bible that it was ever taken
before, nor any account that favours such an opinion. It is not
said, either in Samuel or in Chronicles, that they idterhj destroyed
men, xoomen, and children ; that they lejt not a soid to breathe, as is said
of their other conquests ; and the silence here observed implies
that it was taken by capitulation, and that the Jebusites, the na-
tive uihabitants, continued to live in the place after it was taken.
The account, therefore, given in Joshua, that the Jebusilcs dwell
with tlic children of Judah at Jerusalem at this day, corresponds to
no other time than after the taking the city by David.

Having now .shown that every book in tlie Bible, from Genesis
to Judges, is without authenticity, I come to the book of Rutli, an
idle, bungling story, foolishly told, nobody knows by whom, about
a strolling country girl creeping slily to bed to her cousin Boaz.
Pretty stuff indeed to be called the word of God ! It is, however,
one of the best books in the Bible, for it is free from murder and
rapine.

I come next to the two books of Samuel, and to sliow that those
books were not written l)y Samuel, nor till a gr^at li'iigth ot'time
after the death of Samuel ; and that lln^y are, like all the former
books, anonvmous, and without autlmritv.

To be convinced that these books have been written much la-
ter than the time of Samuel, and consequently not by him, it is
only necessary to read the account which the writer gives of
Saul going to seek his father's a.sscs, and of his interview with
Samuel, of whom Saul went to inquire about those lost asses, as

THE AGE OF REASON 93

foolish people now-a-days go to a conjurer to inquire after lost
things.

The writer, in relating this story of Saul, Samuel, and tlie ass-
es, does not tell it as a thing that had just then happened, but
as an ancient siory in the lime this writer lived ; for he tells it in
the language or terms used at the time that Samitel lived, which
obliges the writer to explain the story in the terms or language
used in the time the writer lived.

Samuel, in the account given of him, in the first of those books,
chap. ix. is called the seer ; and it is by this term that Saul in-
quires after him, ver. 11, " And as they (Saul and his servant)
went up the hill to the city, they found young maidens going out
to draw water ; and they said unto them. Is the seer here 7" Saul
then went a wording to the direction of these maidens, and met
Samuel without knowing him, and said unto him, ver. 18, " Tell
me, I pray thee, where the seer''s house is ? and Samuel answered
Saul, and said, / am the seer.''''

As the writer of the book of Samuel relates these questions
and answers, in the language or manner of speaking used in the
time they are said to have been spoken ; and as that manner of
speaking was out of use when this author wrote, he found it ne-
cessary, in order to make the story understood, to explain the
terms in which these questions and answers are spoken ; and he
does this in the 9th verse, where he says, " before-time, in Israel,
when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spake, Come, let us
go to the seer ; for he that is now called a prophet, was before-
time called a seer." This proves, as I have before said, that
this story of Saul, Samuel, and the asses, was an ancient story
at the time the book of Samuel was written, and consequently
that Samuel did not write it, and that that book is without au-
thenticity.

But if we go further into those books, the evidence is still
more positive that Samuel is not the writer of them ; for they re-
late things that did not happen till several years after the death
of Samuel. Samuel died before Saul ; for the 1st Samuel, chap,
xxviii. tells, that Saul and the witch of Endor conjured Samuel
up after he was dead ; yet the history of the matters contained
in those books is extended through the remaining part of Saul's
life, and to the latter end of the life of David, who succeeded
Saul. The account of the death and burial of Samuel (a thing
which he could not write himself) is related in the 25th chapter
of the first book of Samuel ; and tlie chronology affixed to this
chapter makes this to be 1060 years before Christ ; yet the his-
tory of this first book is brought down to 1056 years before
Christ ; that is, to the death of Saul, which was not till four
years after the death of Samuel.

The second book of Samuel begins with an account of things
that did not happen till four years after Samuel was dead ; for it

94. * THE AGE or reasox.

begins with tiie reign of David, who succeeded Saul, and it goes
on to the end of David's reign, which was forty-three years af-
ter the death of Samuel ; and therefore the books are in them-
selves positive evidence that they were not written by Samuel.

I have now gone through all the books in the first part of the
Bible, to which the names of persons are affixed, as being the
authors of those books, and which the church, styling itself the
Christian church, have imposed upon the world as the writino-s
of Moses, Joshua, and Samuel ; and I have detected and proved
the falsehood of this imposition. And now, ye priests of every
description, who have preached and written against the former
part of (he Age of Reason, what have ye to say r Will ye, with
all this mass of evidence against you, and staring you in the' face,
still have the assurance to march into your pulpits, and continue
to impose these books on your congregations, as the works of
inspired penmen, and the word of God, when it is as evident as
demonstration can make truth appear, that the persons who, ye
say, are the authors, are not the authors, and that ye know'not
who the authors are. What shadow of pretence have ye now to
produce, for continuing the blasphemous fraud ? What have ye
still to offer against the pure and moral religion of Deism, in sup-
port of your system of falsehood, idolatry and pretended revela-
tion ? Had the cruel and murderous orders, with which the Bi-
ble is filled, and the numberless torturing executions of men,
women, and children, in consequence of those orders, been as-
cribed to some friend, whose memory you revered, you would
liave glowed with satisfaction at detecting the falsehood of the
charge, and gloried in defending his injured fame. It is because
ye are sunk in the cruelty of superstition, or feel no interest in
the honour of your Creator, that ye listen to the horrid tales of
the Bible, or hear them with callous indifference. The evidence
I have produced, and sliall still produce in the course of this
work, to prove that the Bible is without authority, will, whilst it
wounds the .stubbornness of a priest, relieve and tranquillize the
minds of millions ; it will free them from all those hard thoughts
of the Almighty which i)rie.st-craft and the Bible had infused mto
their minds, and which stood in everlasting opposition to all their
ideas of his moral justice and benevolence.

I come now to the two hooks of Kings, and the two books of
Chronicles. Those books are altogether historical, and are chief-
ly confined to the lives and actions of tlie Jewish kings, who in
general were a parcel of rascals ; but these are matters with
which we have no more concern, than we have with the Roman
emperors, or Homer's account of the Trojan war. Besides
which, as those works are anonymous, and as we know nothing
of the writer, or of his character, it is impossible for us to know
what degree of credit to give to the matters related therein. Like
ail other ancient histories, they appear to be a jumble of fable

THE AGE OF REASON, 95

and of fact, and of probable and of improbable things ; but
which, distance of time and place, and change of circumstances
in the world, have rendered obsolete and uninteresting.

The chief use I shall make of those books, will be that of com-
paring them with each other, and with other parts of the Bible,
to show the confusion, contradiction, and cruelty, in this pre-
tended word of God.

The first book of Kings begins with the reign of Solomon,
which, according to the Bible Chronology, was 1015 years be-
fore Christ ; and the second book ends 588 years before Christ,
being a little after the reign of Zedekiah, whom Nebuchadnez-
zar, after taking Jerusalem, and conquering the Jews, carried
captive to Babylon. The two books include a space of 427
years.

The two books of Chronicles are an history of the same time,
and in general of the same persons, by another author ; for it
would be absurd to suppose that the same author wrote the his-
tory twice over. The first book of Chronicles, (after giving the
genealogy from Adam to Saul, which takes up the first nine
chapters) begins with the reign of David ; and the last book
ends as in the last book of Kings, soon after the reign of Zede-
kiah, about 588 years before Christ. The two last verses of the
last chapter bring the history 52 years more forward, that is, to
536, But these verses do not belong to the book, as I shall
show when I come to speak of the book of Ezra.

The two books of Kings, besides the history of Saul, David,
and Solomon, who reigned over all Israel, contain an abstract
of the lives of seventeen kings and one queen, who are styled
kings of Judah, and of nineteen, who are styted kings of Israel ;
for the Jewish nation, immediately on the death of Solomon, split
into two parties, who chose separate kings, and who carried
on most rancorous wars against each other.

Those two books are little more than a history of assassina-
tions, treachery, and wars. The cruelties that the Jews had
accustomed themselves to practise on the Canaanites, whose
country they had savagely invaded under a pretended gift from
God, they afterwards practised as furiously on each other.
Scarcely half their kings died a natural death, and in some in-
stances whole families were destroyed to secure possession to
the successor, who, after a few years, and sometimes only a few
months, or less, shared the same fate. In the tenth chapter of
the second book of Kings, an account is given of two baskets
full of children's heads, 70 in number, being exposed at the en-
trance of the city ; they were the children of Ahab, and were
murdered by the orders of Jehu, whom Elisha, the pretended
man of God, had anointed to be king over Israel, on purpose to
commit this bloody deed, and assassinate his predecessor. And
in the account of the reign of Manaham, one of the kings of

9C THE AGE OF REASON.

Israel who had murdered ShaUum, who had reigned birt one
month, it is said, 2 Kings, cliap. xv. ver. 16, that Manaham smote
the city of Tiphsah, because they opened not the city to him,
and all the ivomen that were therein that iverc with child they ripped
up.

Could Ave permit ourselves to suppose that the Almighty would
distinguish any nation of people by the name of his chose7i people,
we n>ust suppose that people to have been an example to all the
rest of the world of the purest piety and humanity, and not such
a nation of ruffians and cut-throats as the ancient Jews were ;
a people, who, corrupted by, and copying after, such monsters
and impostors as Moses and Aaron, Joshua, Samuel, and David,
had distinguished themselves above all others, on the face of the
known earth, for barbarity and wickedness. If we will not stub-
bornly shut our eyes, and steel our hearts, it is impossible not to
see, in spite of all that long-established superstition imposes upon
the mind, that the flattering appellation of his chosen people is no
other than a lie, which the priests and leaders of the Jews had
invented, to cover the baseness of their own characters ; and
which Christian priests, sometimes as corrupt, and often as
cruel, have professed to believe.

The two books of Chronicles are a repetition of the ScJne
crimes ; but the history is broken in severa4 places, by the au-
thor leaving out the reign of some of their kings ; and in this, as
well as in that of Kings, there is such a frequent transition from
kings of Judah to kings of Israel, and from kings of Israel to kings
of Judah, that the narrative is obscure in the reading. In the
same book the history sometimes contradicts itself ; for example,
in the second book of Kings, chap. i. ver. 8, we are told, but in
rather ambiguous terms, that after the death of Ahaziah, king of
Israel, Jehoram, or Joram (who was of the house of Ahab) reign-
ed in his stead in the second year of Jehoram, or Joram, son of
Jehosha])liat king of Judah ; and in chap. viii. ver. 16, of the same
book, it is said, and in the Jijlh year of Joram, the son of Ahab,
king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, betran to
reign ; that is, one cliajjtcr says Joram of Judah began to reign
in the second year of Jorum of Israel ; and tlie other chapter says,
that Joram of Israel began to reign in iUo JiJ'lh year of Joram of
Judah.

Several of the most cxtraordinarv matters related in one liis-
tory, as having liappcned during the reign of such and suc'i of
tJieir kings, are not to be found in the other, in relating the reign
of the same king ; for e.\ampl(>, the two first rival kings, alter
the death of Solomon, were Ilelioboam and Jeroboam ; and in
1 Kings, chap. xii. and xiii. an account is given of Jeroboam
making un offering of l)urnt incense, and that a man, who is there
called a man of Goil, cried out again.st the altar, chap. xiii. ver.
2, " 0 altar ! altar ! thus saitli the Lord ; Ijehold, a child shall

THE AGE OF REASON. 97

be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and upon thee
shall he offer the priests of the high places, and burn incense
upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee." — Ver. 3,
" And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of
the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that
he put forth his hand from the altar, saying. Lay hold on him ;
and his hand which he put out against him dried up, so that he
could not pull it in again to him.'^

One would think that such an extraordinary case as this, (which
is spoken of as a judgment) happening to the chief of one of the
parties, and that at the first moment of the separation of the Is-
raelites into two nations, would, if it had been true, been record-
ed in both histories. But though men in latter times have be-
lieved all that the prophets have said unto them, it does not appear
these prophets or historians believed each other, they knew each
other too well.

A long account also is given in Kings about Elijah. It runs
tlirough several chapters, and concludes with telling, 2 Kings,
chap. ii. ver 11, " And it came to pass, as they (Elijah and Eli-
sha) still went on, and talked, that behold, there appeared a char-
iot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them both assunder, and
Elijah tcent up by a tvhirlwind into heaven.^' Hum ! this the au-
thor of Chronicles, miraculous as the story is, makes no mention
of, though he mentions Elijah by name ; neither does he say any
thing of the story related in the second chapter of the same book
of Kings, of a parcel of children calling Elisha bald head, bald
head ; and that this man of God, ver. 24, turned back, and look-
ed upon them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord ; and there
came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tore forty and two
children of them.". He also passes over in silence the story told,
2 Kings, chap. xiii. that when they were burying a man in the
sepulchre, where Elisha had been buried, it happened that the
dead man, as they were letting him down, (ver, 21,) "touched
the bones of Elisha, and he (the dead man) revived, and stood up-
on his feet.''^ The story does not tell us whether they buried the
man notwithstanding he revived and stood upon his feet, or drew
him up again. Upon all these stories, the writer of Chronicles
is as silent as any writer of the present day, who did not choose
to be accused of lying, or at least of romancing, would be about
stories of the same kind.

But, however these two historians may differ from each other,
with respect to the tales related by either, they are silent alike
with respect to those men styled prophets, whose writings fill up
the latter part of the Bible. Isaiah, who lived in the time of
Hezekiah, is mentioned in Kings, and again in Chronicles, when
these historians are speaking of that reign ; but except in one or
two instances at most, and those very slightly, none of the rest
are so much as spoken of, or even their existence hinted at ;
9

98

THE AGE OF REASON,

though, according to the bible chronology, they lived within the
time those histories were written ; some of them long before. If
those prophets, as they are called, were men of such importance
in their day, as the comi)ilcrs of the Bible, and priests, and com-
mentators have since represented them to be, how can it be ac-
counted for, that not one of these histories should say any thing
about them ?

The history in the books of Kings and Chronicles is brought
forward, as I have already said, to the year 588 before Christ ; it
will therefore be pro])er to examine, which of these prophets liv-
ed before that period.

Here follows a tabic of all the prophets, with the times in which
they lived before Chri.->t, according to the Chronology affixed to
the first chapter of each of the books of the prophets : and also
of the number of years they lived before the books of Kings and
Chronicles were written.

Table of the Prophets, xoilh tJic time in u'hich they lived before Christ,
and also before the books of Kings and Chronicles were written.

Names.

Isaiah

Jeremiah -

Ezekiel -

Daniel

Hosea

Joel

Amos

Obadiah -

Jonah

Micah

Nahum

Habakkuk

Zephaniah

^""SS^y , ) after the
Zachariah > -qq

Malachi ^>^^r^S8

This table is cither not very honourable for the Bible histori-
ans, or not very honourable for the Bible prophets ; and 1 leave
to priests and commentators, who are very learned in little things,
to settle the point of etiquette between the two ; and to assign a
reason, why the authors of Kings and Chronicles have treated
those prophets, whom in the former part of the ^ge of Reason, I

• In 2 Kings, clmp. xiv. vcr. 25, tlie name of Jonah is mentioned on account of the
rcstomtion of a tract of land by Jeroboam ; but notliing furtlicr is .said of liim, nor is
any allusion made to ilie book of Jonah, nor to his expedition to Nincvah, nor to bis
encounter witli the whale.

Years

Years before

bcfiire

Kings and

Observations.

Cl)rist

Chronicles.

760

172

mentioned.

629

41

c mentioned only m
c the last ch. of Chron

595

7

not mentioned.

607

19

not mentioned.

785

97

not mentioned.

800

212

not mentioned.

789

199

not mentioned.

789

199

ntjt mentioned.

862

274

see the note.*

750

162

not mentioned.

713

125

not mentioned.

620

38

not mentioned.

630

42

not mentioned.

THE AGE OF KEASO-V. 99

have considered as poets, with as much degrading silence as any
historian of the present day would treat Peter Pindar.

I have one observation more to make cfti the book of Chroni-
cles ; after which I shall pass on to review the remaining books
of the Bible.

In my observations on the book of Genesis, I have quoted a
passage from the 36th chapter, ver. 31, which evidently refers to
a time, after that kings began to reign over the children of Isra-
el ; and I have shown that as this verse is verbatim the same as
in Chronicles, chap. i. ver. 43, where it stands consistently with
the order of history, which in Genesis it does not, that the verse
in Genesis, and a great part of the 36th chapter, have been taken
from Chronicles ; and that the book of Genesis, though it is placed
first in the Bible, and ascribed to Moses, has been manufactured
by some unknown person, after the book of Chronicles was writ-
ten, which was not until at least eight hundred and sixty years
after the time of Moses.

The evidence I proceed by to substantiate this is regular, and
has in it but two stages. First, as I have already stated, that
the passage in Genesis refers itself for time to Chronicles ; sec-
ondly, that the book of Chronicles, to which this passage refers it-
self, was not begun to be written until at least eight hundred and
sixty years after the time of Moses. To prove this, we have on-
ly to look into the thirteenth verse of the third chapter of the first
book of Chronicles, where the writer, in giving the genealogy of
the descendants of David, mentions Zedekiah ; and it was in the
time of Zedekiah, that Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem,
588 years before Christ, and consequently more than 860 years
after Moses. Those who have superstitiously boasted of the an-
tiquity of the Bible, and particularly of the books ascribed to Mo-
ses, have done it without examination, and without any authority
than that of one credulous man telling it to another ; for, so far
as historical find chronological evidence applies, the very first
book in the Bible is not so ancient as the book of Homer, by
more than three hundred years, and is about the same age>with
.SLsop's Fables.

I am not contending for the morality of Homer ; on the contra-
ry, I think it a book of false glory, tending to inspire immoral
and mischievous notions of honour : aad with respect to ^sop,
though the moral is in general just, the fable is often cruel ; and
the cruelty of the fable does more injury to the heart, especially •
in a child, than the moral does good to the judgment.

Having now dismissed Kings and Chronicles, I come to the
next in course, the book of Ezra.

As one proof, among others, I shall produce, to show the disor-
der in which this pretended word of God, the Bible, has been put
together, and the uncertainty of who the authors were, we have
only to look at the three first verses in Ezra, and the two last in

100

THE AGE OF REASON.

Chronicles ; for by what kind of cutting and shuffling has it been
that the three first verses in Ezra should be the two last verses
in Chronicles, or that the two last verses in Chronicles should be
the three first in Ezra ? Either the authors did not know their
own works, or the compilers did not know the authors.

T'wo last verses of Chronicles.

Ver. 22. Now in the first year
of Cyrus, king of Persia, that
the word of the Lord, spoken by
the mouth of Jeremiah, might
be accomplished, the Lord stir-
red up the spirit of Cyrus, king
of Persia, that he made a proc-
lamation throughout all his
kingdom, and put it also in wri-
ting, saying.

23. Thus saith Cyrus, king of
Persia, all the kingdoms of the
earth hath the Lord God of hea-
ven given me ; and he hath
charged me to build him an
house in Jerusalem, which is in
Judah. Who is there among
you of all his people ? tlae Lord

his God be
him go up^

with him, and let

Three first vei'ses of Ezra.

Ver 1. Now in the first year
of Cyrus, king of Persia, that
the word of the Lord, by the
mouth of Jeremiah, might be
fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the
spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia,
that he made a proclamation
throughout all his kingdom, and
put it also into writing, saying,

2. Thus saith Cyrus, king of
Persia, The Lord God of hea-
ven hath given me all the king-
doms of the earth ; and he hath
charged me to build him an
house at Jerusalem, which is in
Judah.

3. Who is there among you
of all his people ? his God be
with him, and let him go up, to
Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and
build the house of the Lord God
of Israel (he is the God) lohick
is in Jerusalem.

The last verse in Chronicles is broken abruptly, and ends in
the middle of a phrase with the word up, without signifying to
what place. This abrupt break, and the appearance of tlie same
verses in difierent books, show, as I have already said, the dis-
order and ignorance in which the Bible has been put together,
and that the compilers of it had no authority for what they were
doing, nor we any authority for believing what they have done,*

* I observed, as I passed along, several broken and senseless passages in the Bible,
without tliinking tliem of consequence enough to be introduced in the body of the
T;ork ; such as tliat, 1 Samuel, chap. xiii. ver. 1, wliere it is said, "Saul reigned one
year ; and when he had reignetl two years over Israel, Saul chose him three thousand
men, &c." The first part of tlie verse, that Saul reigno<l one ve:ir, has no sense,
since it does not tell us what Saul did, nor say any thing of what liappened at the end
of that one year ; and it is, Ixisides, mere ab-surdity to say he reigne<l one year, when
the very next phrase says he had reigned two ; for if he had reigned two, it was im-
possilil(< not to have reigned one.

Another instance occurs iti Joshua, chap. t. where tlic writer tells us a story of an
angel (for such the table of contents at the head of the chapter calls him,) appearing
unto Joshua ; zuid tlie story ends abruptly, and without any coiickision. The story la

THE AGE OF REASON. 101

The only thing that has any appearance of certainty in the book
of Ezra, is the time in which it was written, which was immedi-
ately after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity,
about 536 years before Christ. Ezra (who, according to the Jew-
ish commentators, is the same person as is called Esdras in the
Apocrypha) was one of the persons who returned, and who, it is
probable, wrote the account of that affair. Nehemiah, whose book
follows next to Ezra, was anotlier of the returned persons ; and
who, it is also probable, wrote the account of the same affair, in
the book that bears his niune. But those accounts are nothing to
us, nor to any other persons, unless it be to the Jews, as a part of
the history of their nation ; and there is just as much of the word
of God in those books as there is in any of the histories of France,
or Rapin's History of England, or the history of any other coun-

But even in matters of historical record, neither of those writers
are to be depended upon. In the second chapter of Ezra, the
writer gives a list of the tribes and families, and of the precise num-
ber of souls of each that returned from Babylon to Jerusalem ; and
this enrolment of the persons so returned, appears to have been
one of the principal objects for writing the book 5 but in this there
is an error that destroys the intention of the undertalving.

The writer begins his enrolment in the following manner : —
chap. ii. ver. 3, "The children of Parosh, two thousand one hun-
dred seventy and four." Verse 4, "The children of Shephatiah,
three hundred seventy and two." And in this manner he pro-
ceeds through all the families ; and in the 64th verse, he makes a
total, and says, the whole congregation together wasforly and hvo
thousand three hundred and three score.

But whoever will take the trouble of casting up the several par-
ticulars, will find that the total is but 29,818 ; so that the errpr is

as follows : — ^^'er. 13, "And it came to pass, wlien Joshua was by Jericlro, tliat he lift-
ed up his eyes and looked, and behold there stood a man over against him with his
Bword drawn in his hand ; and Joshua went unto him, amd said unto him. Art thmi for
us, or for our adversaries V Verse 14, "And he said. Nay ; but as Uie cjiptain of the
liosts of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell oil his face to the eaitli, and did
worship, and said unto him, What saWi my Lord unto his servant V Verse 15, "And
tl>e captain of the I^ord's host s^iid unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from oft" thy foot ; for
the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so." — And what then 1 no-
thing ; for here the story ends, and the chapter tix>.

Either this story is broken oft' in the middle, or 'it is a story told by some Jewish hu-
mourist, in ridicule of Joshua's preiendetl mission from Got) ; and the compilers of the
Bible, not perceiving the design of the story, have told it as a serious matter. As a sto-
ry of humour and ridicule, it ha.s a great deal of point; for it pompously introduces an
aiigel in the figure of a man, with a drawn sword in his hand, before wlwm Joshua falls
on his face to the earth, and worshijis, (which is contrary to their second comraand-
nient;) and tJien, this most important embassy from heaven ends, in telling Joshua to
pull off his shoe. It might as well have told him to pull up his breeches.

It is certain, Iwwever, that the Jews did not credit evei-y thing their leaders told
them, as appears from the cavalier manner in which tliey speak of Moses, when he
was gone into the mount. "As for this Moses, say they, we wot not what is become of
bJin." Exod. chap, xxxii. ver. 1,

9*

102

THE AGE OF REASON.

12,542* What certainty then can there be in the Bible for any
thing ?

Nehemiah, in like manner, gives a list of the returned families,
and of the number of each family. He begins as in Ezra, by say-
ing, chap. vii. ver. 8, *'The children of Parosh, two thousand
three hundred and seventy-two ;" and so on through all the fam-
ilies. The list differs in several of the particulars from that of
Ezra. In the 66th verse, Nehemiah makes a total, and says, as
Ezra had said, "The whole congregation together was forty and
two thousand three hundred and three score." But the particu-
lars of this list make a total but of 3 1,089, so that the error here is
11, 27 1 . These writers may do well enough for Bible-makers, but
not for any thing where truth and exactness is necessary. The
next book in course is the book of Esther. If Madam Esther
thought it any honour to offer herself as a kept mistress to Ahas-
uerus, or as a rival to Queen Vashty, who had refused to come to
a drunken king, in the midst of a drunken company, to be made a
show of (for the account says, they had been drinking seven days,
and were merry,) let Esther and Mordicai look to that, it is no
business of ours ; at least, it is none of mine ; besides which the
story has a great deal the appearance of being fabulous, and is
also anonymous. I pass on to the book of Job.

The book of Job differs in character from all the books we have
hitherto passed over. Treachery and murder make no part of this
book ; it is the meditations of a mind strongly impressed with the
vicissitudes of human life, and by turns sinking under, and strug-
gling against the pressure. It is a highly wrought composition, be-
tween willing submission and involuntary discontent ; and shows
man, as he sometimes is, more disposed to be resigned than he is
capable of being. Patience has but a small share in the charac-
ter of the person of whom the book treats ; on tlic contrary, his
grief is often impetuous ; but he still endeavours to keep a guard
upon it, and seems determined, in the midst of aecumnmlating ills,
to impose upon himself the hard duty of contentment.

I have spoken in a respectful manner of the book of Job in tl>e
former part of the ^Ige of Reason, but without knowing at that time

Particulars of the Families from the second chapter of Ezra.
Hio'tfoiw. 12,243 l$i.j'i foi\v.l5,9.-)3 Br.)'ifoiw

Act.

Chap. II.

Vense 3

2172

4

372

5

775

6

2812

7

1254

8

945

9

760

10

ft42

11

623

12

1222

13

&}6

12,2^13

1.3,953

14

2056

Vcj-. 25

743

15

454

26

621

16

98

27

122

17

823

28

223

18

112

2<)

52

19

223

30

1.56

20

95

31

1254

21

123

32

320

22

56

33

725

23

128

34

345

24

42

35

3630

24,144

OIW

24,144

36

973

37

1052

38

1247

39

1017

40

74

41

128

42

V'S

5.S

at2

CO

652

Tolal, 29,818

THE AGE OF REASON. 103

what I have learned since ; which is, that from all the evidence
that can be collected, the book of Job does not belong to the
Bible.

I have seen the opinion of two Hebrew commentators, Abcnczra
and Spinosa, upon this subject ; they both say that the book of Job
carries no internal evidence of being an Hebrew book ; that the
genius of the composition, and drama of the piece, are not He-
brew ; that it has been translated from another language into He-
brew, and that the author of the book was a Gentile ; that the
character represented under the name of Satan (which is the first
and only time this name is mentioned in the Bible) does not cor-
respond to any Hebrew idea ; and that the two convocations which
the Deity is supposed to have made of those, whom the poem calls
sons of God, and the familiarity which this supposed Satan is sta-
ted to have with the Deity, are in the same case.

It may also be observed, that the book shows itself to be the
production of a mind cultivated in science, which the Jews, so far
from being famous for, were very ignorant of The allusions to
objects of natural philosophy are frequent and strong, and are qf a
different cast to any thing in the books known to be Hebrew. The
fistronomical names, Pleiades, Orion, and Arcturus, are Greek,
and not Hebrew names ; and as it does not appear from any thing
that is to be found m the Bible, that the Jews knew any thing of
astronomy, or that they studied it, they had no translation of those
names into their own language, but adopted the names as they
found them in the poem.

That the Jews did translate the literary productions of the Gen-
tile nations into the Hebrew language, and mix them with their
own, is not a matter of doubt ; the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs
is an evidence of this ; it is there said, ver. 1, The %vord of king
Lemuel, the jjrophecy which his mother taught him. This verse
stands as a preface to the proverbs that follow, and which are not
the proverbs of Solomon, but of Lemuel ; and this Lemuel was not
one of the kings of Israel, nor of Judah, but of some other country,
and consequently a Gentile. The Jews, howevel", have adopted
his proverbs, and as they cannot give any account who the author
of the book of Job was, nor how they came by the book ; and as it
differs in character from the Hebrew writings, and stands totally
unconnected with every other book and chapter in the Bible before
it, and after it, it has all the circumstantial evidence of being orig-
inally a book of the Gentiles.*

* The prayer known by the name of Agur's Prayer, in the 30th chapter of Pro-
verbs, immediately preceding the proverbs of Lemuel, and which is the only sensible,
well-conceived, and well-expressed prayer in tlie Bible, has much the appearance of
being a prayer taken from tjie Gentiles. The name of Agar occurs on no other occas-
ion than tliis ; and he is introduced, together with the prayer ascribed to him, in the
same manner, and nearly in the same words, that Lemuel and his proverbs are intro-
duced in the chapter that follows. The first verse of the 30th chapter says, "The
words of Agur, the son of lakeh, even the projihecy ;" here the word prophecy is used

104 THE AGE OF REASON.

The Bible-makers, and those regulators of time, the Chronolo-
gists, appear to have been at a loss where to place, and how to dis-
pose of the book of Job ; for it contains no one historical circum-
stance, nor allusion to any, that might serve to determine its place
in the Bible. But it would not have answered the purpose of
these men to have informed the world of their ignorance ; and
therefore they have affixed it to the aera of 1520 years before
Christ, which is during the time the Israelites were in Egypt, and
for which they have just as much authority and no more than I
should liave for saying it was a thousand years before that period.
The probability, however, is, that it is older than any book in the
Bible ; and it is the only one that can be read without indignation
or disgust.

^Ve know nothing of what the ancient Gentile world (as it is
called) was before the time of the Jews, whose practice has been
to calumniate and blacken the character of all other nations ; and
it is from the Jewish accounts that we h'ave learned to call them
heathens. But as far as we know to the contrary, they were a just
and moral people, and not addicted, like the Jews, to cruelty and
rev'enge, but of whose profession of faith we are unacquainted. It
appears to have been their custom to personify both virtue and
vice by statues and images, as is done now-a-days both by statuary
and by painting ; but it does not follow from this, that they wor-
shipped them any more than we do. I pass on to the Book of

Psalms, of which it is not necessary to make much observation.
Some of them are moral, and others are very revengeful ; and the
greater part relates to certain local circumstances of the Jewish
nation at the time they were written, with which we have nothing
to do. It is, however, an error or an imposition to call them the
Psalms of David : they are a collection, as song-books are now-
a-days, from difierent song-writers, who lived at different times.
The 137th Psalm could not have been written till more than 400
years after the time of David, because it is w ritten in commemora-
tion of an event, the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, which did
not happen till that distance of time. " By the Hvers of Babylon we
sal duivii ; yea, ti'c wept wlien we remembered Zion. IVe hanged our
Iiai-ps upon the willows, in the midst thereof ; for there they that car-
lied ns away captive, required of us a sotig, saying, sing tts one of
the songs of Zion.'''' As a man would say to an American, or to a
Frenchman, or to an Englishman, sing us one of your American
songs, or your French songs, or your English songs. This remark
with respect to the time this Psalm was written, is of no other use

with ilie same application it has in itie following rhaptpi of Lemiiol, unconnected with
any tliin^j of prediction. The prayer of Af^nr is iu thn 8th and 9tli verses, "Remove
far from me vanity atul lies ; give me neillur richet nor poverty, but feed me
with food convenient for me: lest I be full and deny thee, and say, IVlio is the
Lord ! or lest I he poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." This
lias not any of tJie marks of l)cing a Jewish prayer, for tl)c Jews never praj-ed but
when they were in trouble, and never for any thing but viclory, vengeance, and riches.

THE AGE OF REASOX. 105

than to show (among others already mentioned) the general impo-
sition the world has been under, with respect to the authors of the
Bible. No regard has been paid to time, place, and circumstance ;
and the names of persons have been affixed to the several books,
which it was as impossible they should write, as that a man should
walk in procession at his own funeral.

The Book of Froverbs. These, like the Psalms, are a collec-
tion, and that from authors belonging to other nations than those
of the Jewish nation, as I have shown in the observations upon
the book of Job ; besides which, some of the proverbs ascribed to
Solomon, did not appear till two hundred and fifty years after the
death of Solomon ; for it is said in the 1st verse of the 25th chap-
ter, " These are also proverbs of Solomon, tchich the men ofHezeliah,
king ofJitdah, copied out." It was two hundred and fifty years
from the time of Solomon to the time of Hezekiah. When a man
is famous, and his name is abroad, he is made the putative father
of things he never said or did ; and this, most probably, has been
the case with Solomon. If appears to have been the fashion of
that day to make proverbs, as it is now to make jest-books, and
father them upon those who never saw them.

The Book o^ Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher, is also ascribed to
Solomon, and that with much reason, if not with truth. It is writ-
ten as the solitary reflections of a worn-out debauchee, such as
Solomon was, who looking back on scenes he can no longer enjoy,
cries out, ^11 is vanity ! A great deal of the metaphor and of the
sentiment is obscure, most probably by translation ; but enough is
left to show they were strongly pointed in the original.* From
what is transmitted to us of tlie character of Solomon, he was wit-
ty, ostentatious, dissolute, and at last melancholy. He lived fast,
and died, tired of the world, at the ajje of fiftv-eight years.

Seven hundred wives, and three hundred concubines, are worse
than none ; and however it may carry with it the appearance of
heightened enjoyment, it defeats all the felicity of affection, by
leaving it no point to fix upon ; divided love is never happy. This
was the case with Solomon : and if he could not, with all his pre-
tensions to wisdom, discover it beforehand, he merited, unpitietl,
the mortification he afterwards endured. In this point of view, his
preaching is unnecessary, because, to know the consequences, it is
only necessary to know the cause. Seven hundred wives, and
three hundred concubines, would have stood in place of the whole
book. It was needless after this to say, that all was vanity and
vexation of spirit ; for it is impossible to derive happiness from
the company of those whom we deprive of happiness.

To be happy in old age, it is necessary that we accustom our-
selves to objects that can accompany the mind all the way through

* Those that look out of the window shall be darkened, is an obscure figure in
translatioi] for loss of sight.

106 THE AGE OF REASON.

life, and that we take the rest as good in their day. The mere
man of pleasure is miserable in old age ; and the mere drudge in
business is but little better : whereas, natural philosophy, mathe-
matical and mechanical science, are a continual source of tran-
quil pleasure ; and in spite of the gloomy dogmas of priests, and
of superstition, the study of those things is the study of the true
theology ; it teaches man to know and to admire the Creator, for
the principles of science are in the creation, and are unchangeable,
and of divine origin.

Those who knew Benjamin Franklin will recollect, that his
mind was ever young ; his temper ever serene : science, that nev-
er grows grey, was always his mistress. He was never without
an object, for when we cease to have an object, we become like
an invalid in an hospital waiting for death.

Solomon's Songs are amorous and foolish enough, but which
wrinkled fanaticism has called divine. The compilers of the Bi-
ble have placed these songs after the book of Ecclesiastes ; and
the chronologists have affixed to them the cera of 1014 years before
Christ, at which time Solomon, according to the same chronology,
was nineteen years of age, and was then forming his seraglio of
^vives and concubines. The Bible-makers and the chronologists
should have managed this matter a little better, and either have
said nothing about the time, or chosen a time less inconsistent \vith
the supposed divinity of those songs ; for Solomon was then in the
honey-moon of one thousand debaucheries.

It should also have occurred to them, that .as he wrote, if he
did write, the book of Ecclesia.stes, long after these songs, and
in which he exclaims, that all is vanity and vexation of spirit ,
that he included those songs in that description. This is the
more probable, because he says, or somebody for him, Ecclesias-
tes, chap. ii. V. 8, " I !ivl mc men singers, and women singers,
(most probably to .sing those songs) and mufiical instrumcnls of all
sorls ; and behold (ver. 1 1,) all was vanity and vexation of spirit."
The compilers, however, have done their work but by halves ;
for as they have given us the songs, they sliould have given us
the tunes, that we might sing them.

The books, called the books of the Prophets, fill up all the re-
maining part of the Bible ; they arc sixteen in number, begin-
ning with Isaiali, and ending with Malarhi ; of which I have
given you a lisj, in (lie fi!).servations upon Chronicles. Of these
sixteen prophets, all of wiiom, except tlio tiirce last, lived with-
in the time the books of Kings and Chronicles wore written ;
two otdy, Isaiali and Jeremiah, are mentioned in the history of
those books. I shall begin with those two, reserving what I
have to say on the general character of tlic men called prophets
to another part of the work.

Whoever will take the trouble of reading the book ascribed to
Isaiah, will find it one of the most wild aud disorderly composi-

THE AGE OF REASON. 107

tions ever put together ; it has neither beginning, middle, nor end ;
and except a short historical part, and a few sketches of his-
tory in two or three of the first chapters, is one continued inco-
herent, bombastical rant, full of extravagant methaphor, without
application, and destitute of meaning ; a school-boy would scarce-
ly have been excusable for writing such stuff; it is (at least in
the translation) that kind of composition and false taste, that is
properly called prose run mad.

The historical part begins at the 36th chapter, and is continu-
ed to the end of the 39th chapter. It relates to some matters that
are said to have passed during the reign of Hezekiah, king of Ju-
dah, at which time Isaiah lived. This fragment of history be-
gins and ends abruptly ; it has not the least connection with the
chapter that precedes it, nor with that which follows it, nor with
any other in the book. It is probable that Isaiah wrote this
fragment himself, because he was an actor in the circumstances
it treats of; but, except this part, there are scarcely two chap-
ters that have any connection with each other ; one is entitled,
at the beginning of the first verse, the burden of Babylon ; an-
other, the burden of Moab ; another, the burden of Damascus ;
another, the burden of Egypt ; another the burden of the Desart
of the Sea ; another, the burden of the Valley of Vision ; as
you would say, the story of the knight of the burning mountain,
the story of Cinderella, or the children in the wood, &.c. &c.

I have already shown, in the instance of the two last verses of
Chronicles, and the three first in Ezra, that the compilers of the
Bible mixed and confounded the writings of different authors
with each other, which alone, were there no other cause, is suf-
ficient to destroy the authenticity of any compilation, because
it is more than presumptive evidence that the compilers are
ignorant who the authors were. A very glaring instance of this
occurs in the book ascribed to Isaiah, the latter part of the 44th
chapter, and the beginning of the 45th, so far from having been
written by Isaiah, could only have been written by some person
who lived, at least, an hundred and fifty years afler Isaiah was
dead.

These chapters are a compliment to Cyrus, who permitted the
Jews to return to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity, to
rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, as is stated in Ezra. The
last verse of the 44th chapter, and the beginning of the 45th, are
in the following words : " That saith of Cyms, he is my shepherd,
and shall perforin all my pleastire ; even sayinf;:^ to Jerusalem, thou
shalt be built ; ami to the temple, thy foundations shall be laid ; thus
saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, tchose nprht hand I have
holden to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of Icings
to open before him the two-leaved gates, and the gates shall not be
thvi ; I will go before thee, <^c."

108 TUE AGE OF REASON.

What audacity of church and priestly ignorance it is to impose
this book upon the world as the writing of Isaiah, when Isaiah,
accofding to their own chronology, died soon after the death of
Hezekiah, which was 698 years before Christ ; and the decree
of Cyrus, in favor of the Jews returning to Jerusalem, was, ac
cording to the same chronology, 536 years before Christ ; which
was a distance of time between the two of 162 years. I do not
suppose that the compilers of the Bible made these books, but
rather that they picked up some loose, anonymous essays, and
put them together under the names of such authors as best suit-
ed their purj)ose. They have encouraged the imposition, which
is next to inventing it ; for it was impossible but they must
have observed it.

When we see the studied craft of the scripture-makers, in
making every part of this romantic book of school-boy's elo-
quence, bend to the monstrous idea of a Son of God, begotten
by a ghost on the body of a virgin, there is no imposition we are
not justified in suspecting them of. Every phrase and circum-
stance are marked with the barbarous hand of superstitious tor-
ture, an<l forced into meanings it was impossible they could have.
The head of every chapter, and the top of every page, are blaz-
oned with the names of Christ and the church, that the unwary
reader might suck in the error before he began to read.

Behold a rw-nftn shall conceive, and bear a so7i, Isaiah, chap. vii.
ver. 14, has been interpreted to mean the person called Jesus
Christ, and his mother Mary, and has been echoed through Chris-
tendom for more than a thousand years ; and such has been the
rage of this opinion, that scarcely a spot in it but has been stain-
ed with blood and marked with desolation in consequence of it.
Though it is not my intention to enter into controversy on sub-
jects of this kind, but to confine myself to show that the Bible is
spurious ; and thus, by taking away the foundation, to over-
throw at once the whole structure of superstition raised thereon ;
I will, however, stop a moment to expose the fallacious applica-
tion of this |)a.=!sage.

Whether Isaiah was playing a trick with Ahaz, king of Judah,
to whom this passage is spoken, is no business cf mine ; I mean
only to show the misapplication of the passage, and that it has no
more reference to Christ and his mother, tlian it has to me and
my mother. The story is simply this :

The king of Syria and the king of Israel (I have already men-
tioned that the Jews were split into two nations, one of which
was called Judali, the capital of Avhicli was .Jerusalem, and the
other Israel) made war jointly against Ahaz, king of Judah, and
marched their armies towards Jerusalem. Ahaz and his people
became alarmed, and the account says, ver. '2. " Their hearts
were moved as the trees of the wood are moved tvHh the wind "

THE AGE OF REASON. 109

In this situation of things, Isaiah addresses himself to Ahaz,
and assures him in the name of the Lord (the cant phrase of all
the prophets) that these two kings should not succeed against
him ; and to satisfy Ahaz that this should be the case, tells him
to ask a sign. This, the account says, Ahaz declined doing ;
giving as a reason, that he would not tempt the Lord ; upon which
Isaiah, who is the speaker, says, ver. 14, *' Therefore the Lord
himself shall give you a sign ; behold a virgin shall conceive, and
hear a son ;''^ and the 16th verse says, "And before this child
shall know to refuse the evil, and cJwose the good, the land which
thou abhorrest or dreadest (meaning Syria and the kingdom of
Israel) shall be forsaken of both her kings." Here then was
the sign, and the time limited for the completion of the assur-
ance or promise ; namely, before this child should know to re-
fuse the evil, and choose the good.

Isaiah having committed himself thus far, it became necessary
to him, in order to avoid the imputation of being a false prophet,
and the consequence thereof, to take measures to make this sign
appear. It certainly was not a difficult thing, in any time of the
world, to find a girl with child, or to make her so ; and perhaps
Isaiah knew of one before-hand ; for I do not suppose that the
prophets of that day were any more to be trusted than the priests
of this : be that however as it may, he says in the next chapter,
ver. 2, " And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah
the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, and I icent unto
the prophetess, and she conceived and bare a son.''^

Here then is the whole story, foolish as it is, of this child and
this virgin ; and it is upon the bare-faced perversion of this story,
that the book of Matthew, and the impudence and sordid interests
of priests in latter times, have founded a theory which they call
the gospel ; and have applied this story to signify the person they
call Jesus Christ ; begotten, they say, by a ghost, whom they
call holy, on the body of a woman, engaged in marriage, and
afterwards married, whom they call a virgi^n, 700 years after this
foolish story was told ; a theory which, speaking for myself, I
hesitate not to believe, and to say, is as fabulous and as false as
God is true.*

But to show the imposition and falsehood of Isaiah, we have
only to attend to the sequel of this story ; which, though it is
passed over in silence in the book of Isaiah, is related in the 28th
chapter of the second Chronicles ; and which is, that instead of
the&e two kings failing in their attempt against Ahaz, king of Ju-
dah, as Isaiah had pretended to foretel in the name of the Lord,
they succeeded ; Ahaz was defeated and destroyed ; an hun-

* In the 14th verse of the vii. chapter, it is said, that the child should be called
Inimanuel ; btit this name was not given to either of the children, otherwise than aa
a character, which the word signifies. That of the prophetess waa cal ed Maher-
elialal-liaeh-baz, and that of Mary was called Jesus.

10

110 THE AGE OF REASON.

dred and twenty thousand of his people were slaughtered ; Je-
rusalem was plundered, and two hundred thousand women, and
sons and daughters, cai-ried into captivity. Thus much for this
lying prophet and impostor Isaiah, and the book of falsehoods
that bears his name. I pass on to the book of

Jeremiah. This prophet, as he is called, lived in the time
that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, in the reign of Zede-
kiah, the last king of Judah ; and the suspicion was strong
against him, tliat lie was a traitor in the interest of Nebuchad-
nezzar. Every thing relating to Jeremiah shows him to have
been a man of an equivocal character ; in his metaphor of the
potter and the clay, c. xviii. he guards his prognostications in such
a crafty manner, as always to leave himself a door to escape by,
in case the event should be contrary to what he had predicted.

In the 7th and 8th verses of that chapter, he makes the Al-
mighty to say, " At what instant I shall speak concerning a na-
tion, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down,
and destroy it ; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced,
turn from their evil, I will repent me of the evil that I thought to
do unto them." Here v.as a proviso against one side of the
case ; now for the other side.

Verses 9 and 10, " At what instant I shall speak concerning
a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it
do evil in ray sight, that it obey not my voice ; then I will rcpeni
me of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them." Here
is a proviso against the other side ; and, according to this plan
of prophesying, a prophet could never be wrong, however mis-
taken the Ahnightv might be. This sort of absurd subterfuge,
and this manner of speaking of the Almighty, as one would speak
of a man, is consistent with nothing but the stupidity of the Bible.

As to the authenticity of the book, it is only necessary to read
it in order to decide positively, that, though some passages record-
ed therein may have been spoken by Jeremiah, he is not the au-
thor of the book. The historical parts, if they can be called by
that name, are in the most confused condition : the same events
are several times repeated, and that in a manner ditferent, and
sometimes in contradiction to each other ; and this disorder runs
even to the last chapter, where the history, uixm which the great-
er part of the book has been emploved, begins a-new, and ends
abruptly. The book has all the appearance of being a medlev
of unconnected anecdotes, respecting persons and things of that
time, collected together in tlie same rudo manner as if the various
and contradictory accounts, that are to Ik; found in a bundle of
newspapers, respecting persons and things of the present day,
were put together without date, order, or explanation. I will give
two or three examples of this kind.

It appears, from the account of the 37th chapter, that the ar-
my of Nebuchadnezzar, which is called the army of the Chal-

THE AGE OF REASON. Ill

deans, had besieged Jerusalem some time ; and on their hearing
that the array of Pharaoh, of Egypt, 'was marching against them,
they raised the siege, and retreated for a time. It may here be
proper to mention, in order to understand this confused history,
that Nebuchadnezzar had besieged and taken Jerusalem, during
the reign of Jehoiakim, the predecessor of Zedekiah ; and that
it was Nebuchadnezzar who had made Zedekiah king, or rather
vice-roy ; and that this second siege, of which the book of Jere-
miah treats, was in consequence of the revolt of Zedekiah against
Nebuchadnezzar. This will, in some measure, account for the
.suspicion that affixes itself to Jeremiah, of being a traitor, and in
the interest of Nebuchadnezzar ; whom Jeremiah calls, in tho
43d chap. ver. 10, the servant of God.

The 1 1th verse of this chapter (the 37th,) says, " And it ctuno
*o pass, that, when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up from
Jerusalem, for fear of Pharaoh's army, that Jeremiah went forth
out of Jerusalem, to go (as this account states,) into the land of
Benjamin, to separate himself thence in the midst of the people ;
and when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward
was there, whose name was Irijah ; and he took Jeremiah the
prophet, saying. Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans ; then Jere-
miah said, It is false, I fall not away to the Chaldeajis. Jeremi-
ah being thus stopped and accused, was, after being examined,
committed to prison, on suspicion of being a traitor, where he re-
mained, as is stated in the last verse of this chapter.

But the next chapter gives an account of the imprisonment of
Jeremiah, which has no connection with this account, but ascribes
his imprisonment to another circumstance, and for which we must
^o back to the the 21st chapter. It is there stated, ver. 1, that
Zedekiah sent Pashur, the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah, the
son of Maaseiah the priest, to Jeremiah, to inquire of him con-
cerning Nebuchadnezzar, whose army was then before Jerusa-
lem ; and Jeremiah said to them, ver. 8, "Thus saith the Lord,
Behold I set before you the way of life, and the way of death ;
he that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the
famine, and by the pestilence ; but he that goeth out and falleth
to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall
be unto him for a prey." This interview and conference breaks
off abruptly at the end of the 10th verse of the 21st chapter; and
such is the disorder of this book, that we have to pass over six-
teen chapters, upon various subjects, in order to come at the con-
tinuation and event of this conference ; and this brings us to the
first verse of the 38th chapter, as I have just mentioned.

The 38th chapter opens with saying, " Then Shephatiah, the
son of Mattan ; Gedaliah, the son of Pashur ; and Juhal, the
son of Shelemiah ; and Pashur, the son of Malchiah ; (here are
more persons mentioned than in the 21st chapter) heard the words
that Jeremiah spoke unto th« people, saying. Thus saith the Loi'dj

112 THE AGE OF REASOJT.

He that remainelh in this city, shall die by the sword, by thefamtngy
and by the pestilence ; but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall
live ; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live ; (which are
the words of the conference) therefore, (say they to Zedekiah,) we
beseech thee, let us put this man to death, for thus he weakeneth
the hands of the men ofivar that remain in this city, and the hands of
all the people in speaking such words unto them ; for this man seckcih
not the welfare of the people, bid the hurt :" and at the 6th verse it is
said, " Then they took Jeremiah, and put him into a dungeon of
Malchiah."

These two accounts are different and contradictory. The one
ascribes his imprisonment to iiis attempt to escape out of the ci-
ty ; the other to his preaching and propliesying in the city ; the
one to his being seized by the guard at the gate ; the other to his
being accused before Zedekiah, by the conferees.*

In the next chapter (the 39th) we have another instance of the
disordered state of this book : for notwithstanding the siege of the
city, by Nebuchadnezzar, has been the subject of several of the
precedin g chapters, particularly the 37th and 38th; the 39th chap-
ter begins as if not a word had been said upon the subject ; and as
if the reader was to be informed of every particular respecting
it ; for it begins with saying, ver. 1, "/?i the ninth year of Zedekiah,
hing ofJudah, in tfie tenth month, came JVebuchadnezzar, king of Baby-
lon, and all his army, against Jerusalem, and besieged it, &c. Stc."

But the instance in the last chapter (the 52d) i^ still more glar-
ing ; for though the story has been told over and over again, this

* I obserred two chapters, 16th andl7th, in the first book of Samuel, that contradict
each other with respect to David, and llie manner he became acquainted with Saul; as
the 37tli and 38di chapters of tlie book of Jeremiali contradict each other with respect
to the cause of Jeromiah's imprisonment.

In the 16th chapter of Samuel, it is said, that aft evil spirit of God troubled Saul,
and that his servants advised hiin (as a remedy) "to seek out a man who was a cun-
ning player upon tlie harp." An(i Saul said, ver. 17, "Provide now a man tliat can
play well, and bring liirn unto me." Then answered one of his servants, and said, Bo-
liold, I have seen a son of Jesse, the Bctlilcheniite, that is cunning in playing, and a
mighty man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and
the Lord 'u with him ; wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, " Send
me David, thy son." And (verse 21) David came to Saul, and stood before him, and
Jie loved him greatly, and he became his armoiu- -bearer; and when the evil Spirit of
God was u|)on Saul, (verse 23) David took his harp, and playetl with his hand, and
Saul was refreshed, and was well.

lUit the next chapicr (17) gives an account, all different to this, of the manner
that Said and David lx!came ac(|uainte<l. Here it is ascribed to David's encoun-
ter with Goliali, when David was sent by his fallier to carry provision to his breth-
ren in the camj). In the 55tli verse of this chapter it is said, "And when Saul
saw David go forth against the I'hilistinej ((ioliali) he said to Abner, the captain
of the Host, Abner, whose son is this youth ! And Abner said. As thy soul livedi,
O king, I cannot tell. And the king said. Inquire thou whose son the stripling is
And as David returned from the slaughter of the I'liilistine, Abner took him and
brought him bef ire Saul, witli the head of the I'hilistine in his hand ; and Saul
Eaid unto liiiu, Whose son art thou, thou voiuig man ? And David answered, "lam
tlie son of (liy servant Jesse, the licthleiiemile." These two accounts belie each
other, In'cause eacli of them supposes Saul and David nut to have known each olhi
or before. Thisbrjok, the bible, is too ridiculous even for criticism.

THE AGE OF REASOiV. • 1 13

chaptei* still supposes the reader not to know any thing of it, for it
begins by saying, ver. 1, "Zedekiah was one ami hvcntij years old
when he began lo reign, and lie reigned eleven years in Jet'usalem, and
his moiher''s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah ofLibnah,
(ver. 4.) and it came to pass, in the ninth year of his reign, in the
tenth month, that JVeht'chadnezzar, king of Babylon, came, he and
all his army, agai)ist Jerusalem, and pitched against it, aiid built
forts against it, &.c. &c."

It is not possible that any one man, and more particularly Jere-
miah, could have been the writer of this book. The errors are
such as could not have been committed by any person sitting down
to compose a work. Were I, or any other man, to write in such
a disordered manner, nobody would read what was written ; and
every body would suppose that the writer was in a state of insan-
ity. The only way, therefore, to account for this disorder, is, that
the book is a medley of detached unauthenticated anecdotes, put
together by some stupid book-maker, vmder the name of Jeremi-
ah ; because many of them refer to him, and to the circumstances
of the times he lived in.

Of the duplicity, and of the false predictions of Jeremiah, I shall
mention two instances, and then proceed to review the remainder
of the Bible.

It appears fi-om the 38th chapter, that when Jeremiah was in
prison, Zedekiah sent fur him, and at this interview, which was
private, Jeremiah pressed it strongly on Zedekiah to surrender
himself to the enemy. "//, says he, (ver. 17,) thou wilt assuredly
go forth unto the king of Babylon'' s princes, then thy soul shall live,
&.C." Zedekiah was apprehensive that what passed at this con-
ference should be known ; and ht^aid to Jeremiah, (ver. 25,) "If
the princes (meaning those of Judah) hear that I have talked with
thee, and they come unto thee and say unto thee. Declare unto us
now what thou hast said unto the king ; hide it not from us, and we
will not put thee to death ; and also what the king said unto thee;
then thou shnlt say unto them, I presented my supplication before
the king ; that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's
house to die there. Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah,
and asked him, and he told them according to all the u'ords the king
had commanded.'''' Thus, the man of God, as he is called, could
tell a lie, or very strongly prevaricate, when he supposed it would
answer his purpose ; for certamly he did not go to Zedekiah to
make his supplication, neither did he make it ; he went because he
was sent for, and he employed that opportunity to advise Zedeki-
ah to surrender himself to Nebuchadnezzar.

In the 34th chapter, is a prophecy of Jeremiah to Zedekiah, in
these words, (ver 2) "Thus saith the Lord, Behold I will give this
city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with
fire ; and thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but that thou shalt
surely be taken, and delivered into his hand ; and thine eyes shall

. 10*

114 ' THE AGE OF REASON.

behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with
thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon. Yet hear the
word of the Lord ; O Zcdekiah, J.hig nfJiidah, thus salih the Lord,
Thou shah not die bij the sword, hut thou shalt die in peace ; and
with the Ijurnings of thy fathers, the former kings that icere before
thee, so shall they burn odours for thee, and they leill lament thee, say-
ing, Jill, Lord ; for J hare pronounced the loord, saith the Lord.''''

Now, instead of Zedekiah beholding the eyes of the king of
Babylon, and speaking with him mouth to mouth, and dying in
peace, and witli the burning of odours, as at the funeral of his
fathers (as Jeremiah had declared the Lord himself had pronounc-
ed) the reverse, according to the S'id chapter, was the case ; it is
there said, (ver. 10) "That the king of Babylon slew the sons of
Zedekiah before his eyes : then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah,
and bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put
him in prison till the day of his death." What then can we say
of these prophets, but that they are impostors and hars ?

As for Jeremiah, he experienced none of those evils. He was
taken into favour by Nebuchadnezzar, who gave him in charge to
the captain of the guard, (chap, xxxix. ver. 12) " Take him,
(said he) and look well to him, and do him no harm ; but do un-
to him even as he shall say unto thee." Jeremiah joined him-
self afterwards to Nebuchadnezzar, and went about prophesying
for him against the Egyptians, wlio had marched to the relief of
Jerusalem while it was besieged. Thus much for another of the
lying prophets, and the book that bears his name.

I have been the more particular in treating of the books as-
cribed to Isaiah and Jeremiah, because those two are spoken of
in the books of Kings and of Ch|pnicles, which the others are not.
The remainder of the books ascribed to the men called prophets,
I shall not trouble myself much about ; but take them collec-
tively into the observations I shall offer on the character of the
men styled prophets.

In the former part of the »dge of Reason, I have said that the
word prophet was the Bible-word for poet, and that the flights
and metaphors of the Jewish poets have been foolishly erected
into what are now called prophecies. I am sufficiently justified
in this opinion, not only because the books called the prophecies
arc written in poetical language, but because there is no word
in the Bible, except it be the word prophet, that describes what
we mean by a poet. I have also said, that the word signifies a
performer upon music.nl instruments, of which I have given some
instances ; such as that of a company of prophets prophesying
with psalteries, with tabrets, with pipes, with harps, &.c. and that
iSaul prophesied with them, 1 Sam. chap. .\. ver. o. It appears
from tliis passage, and from other parts in the book of Samuel,
that the word prophet was confined to signify poetry and music ;
for the person who was supposed to have a visionary insight into

THE XGE OF REASON. 115

concealed things, was not a prophet but a seer,* (1 Sam. chap.
ix. ver. 9 ;) and it was not till after the word seer went out of use
(which most probably was when Saul banished those he called
wizards) that the profession of the seer, or the art of seeing, be-
came incorporated into the word prophet.

According to the modern meaning of the Avord prophet and
prophesying, it signifies foretelling events to a great distance of
time ; and it became necessary to the inventors of the gospel to
give it this latitude of meaning, in order to apply or to stretch
what they call the prophecies of the Old Testament, to the times
of the New ; but according to the Old Testament, the prophe-
sying of the seer, and afterwards of the prophet, so far as the
meaning of the word seer was incorporated into that of pro-
phet, had reference only to things of the time then passing, or
very closely connected with it ; such as the event of a battle
they were going to engage in, or of a journey, or of any enter-
prise they were going to undertake, or of any circumstance then
pending, or of any difficulty they were then in ; all of which
had immediate reference to themselves (as in the case already
mentioned of Ahaz and Isaiah with respect to the expression,
Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,) and not to any dis-
tant future time. It was that kind of prophesying that corres-
ponds to what we call fortune-telling ; such as casting nativities,
predicting riches, fortunate or unfortunate marriages, conjuring
for lost goods, &c. ; and it is the fraud of the Christian church,
not that of the Jews ; and the ignorance and the superstition of
modern, not that of ancient times, that elevated those poetical —
musical — conjuring — dreaming — stroling gentry, into the rank
they have since had.

But, besides this general character of all the prophets, they
had also a particular character. They were in parties, and they
prophesied for or against, according to the party they were with ;
as the poetical and political writers of the present day write in
defence of the party they associate with against the other.

After the Jews were divided into two nations, that of Judah
and that of Israel, each party had its prophets, who abused and
accused each other of being false prophets, lying prophets, im-
postors, &c.

The prophets of the party of Judah prophesied against the
prophets of the party of Israel ; and those of the party of Israel
against those of Judah. This party-prophesying showed itself
immediately on the separation under the first two rival kings Re-
hoboam and Jeroboam. The prophet that cursed, or prophesi-
ed, against the altar that Jeroboam had built in Bethel, was of
the party of Judah, where Rehoboam was king ; and he was

* I know not what is the Hebrew word that corresponds to the word seer in Eng-
lish ; but I observf it is translated into French by La Voyant, from the verb voir to
see i and which means tlie person who sees, or the seer.

116 THE AGE OF REASON.

way-laid, on his return home, by a prophet of the party of Israel,
who said unto him, (1 Kings, chap, x.) ^' Jld thou the man of
God that came from Juilah '{ ami he said I am.'''' Then the pro-
phet of the party of Israel said to him, " I am a prophet also, as
Viou art, (signifying of Judah) and an angel spake unto mc by the
word of the Lord, saijing, Bting him back icith thee unto thine house,
tiial he may cat bread ami dnnk water : but (says the 18th verse)
he lied unto him.'' ^ This event, however, according to the story,
is, tliat the prophet of Judah never got back to Judah, for he
was found dead on the road, by the contrivance of the prophet
of Israel, who, no doubt, was called a true prophet by his own
party, and the prophet of Judah a lying prophet.

In the third chapter of the second of Kings, a story is related
of prophesying or conjuring, that shows, in several particulars,
the character of a prophet. Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and
Joram, king of Israel, had for a while ceased their party animos-
ity, and entered into an alliance ; and these two, together with
the king of Edom, engaged in a war against the king of Moab.
After uniting and marching their armies, the story says, they
were in great distress for water, upon which Jehoshaphat said,
" Is there iwt here a proplwt of the Lord, (hat lue maij inquire of
iJie Lord bij Jiim ? and one of the servants of the king oj Israel
said, here is Elisha. (EHsha was of the party of Judah.) Jlnd
Jehoshaphat, the king ofJmlah, said, The word of the Lord is with
7ti)/i." The story then says, that these three kings went down
to Elisha ; and when Elisha (wlio, as I have said, was a Judah-
raite propliet) saw the king of Israel, he said unto him, " JVhat
have I to do a-ilh thee, get thee to the prophets of thtf father and tJie
prophets (f thy mother. JVt/i/ 6»/, said the king of Israel, the Lord
hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand
of the king of Moab,'''' (meaning because of the distress they were
in for water ;) upon which Elisha said, " Jls the Lord of hosts liv-
clh, before whom I stand, surely, u-ere it not that I regard Jehosha-
phat, king (f Jutlah, I wordd not look towards thee, nor see thee.
Here is all the venom and vulgarity of a party prophet. — We
have now to see the pertbrmance, or manner of prophesying.

Ver. 15. ''■Bring mc, said KHslia, a minstrel : and it came to
pass, wlicn the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon
lum.^^ Here is the farce of the conjuror. Now for the prophe-
cy : " Jlnd Elisha said, (singing most probal)ly to the tune he
was playing) Tims sailh the Lord, Make this valUy full (f ditches ,•"
wbicli was just telling tlicni wliat every countryman could have
told them, without either fiddle or farce, that the way to get
wafer was to dig for it.

IJut as every conjuror is not famous alike for tlic same tiling,
80 neither were those projihets ; for though all of them, at least
those I linve s|)oken of, were famous [()r lying, some of them ex-
celled in cursing. Elisha, whom I have just mentioned, was a

THE AGE OP REASON. 117

chief in this branch of prophesying ; it was he that cursed the
forty-two children in the name of the Lord, whom the two she-
bears came and devoured. We are to suppose that those chil-
dren were of the party of Israel ; but as those who will curse
will lie, there is just as much credit to be given to this story of
Elisha's two she-bears as there is to that of the Dragon of Wan-
tley, of whom it is said : —

Poor children three devoured he,
That could not with him grapple ;
And at one sup he eat them up.
As a man would eat an apple.

There was another description of men called prophets, that amus-
ed themselves with dreams and visions ; but whether by night
or by day, we know not. These, if they were not quite harmless,
were but little mischievous. Of this class are *

Ezekiel and Daniel ; and the first question upon those books,
as upon all the others, is, are they genuine ? that is, were they
written by Ezekiel and Daniel ?

Of this there is no proof; but so far as my own opinion goes,
I am more inclined to believe they were, than that they were not.
My reasons for this opinion are as follow : First, Becaue those
books do not contain internal evidence to prove they were not
written by Ezekiel and Daniel, as the books ascribed to Moses,
Joshua, Samuel, &c. &c. prove they were not written by Moses,
Joshua, Samuel, St-c.

Secondly, Because they were not written till after the Baby-
lonish captivity began ; and there is good reason to believe, that
not any book in the Bible was written before that period : at
least, it is proveable, from the books themselves, as I have al-
rea(^y shown, that they were not written till after the commence-
ment of the Jewish monarchy.

Thirdly, Because the manner in which the books ascribed to
Ezekiel and Daniel are written, agrees with the condition Ihese
men were in at the time of writing them.

Had the numerous commentators and priests, who have fool-
ishly employed or wasted their time in pretending to expound
and unriddle those books, been carried in captivity, as Ezekiel
and Daniel were, it would have greatly improved their intellects,
in comprehending the reason for this mode of writing, and have
saved them the trouble of racking their invention, as they have
done, to no purpose ; for they would have found that themselves
would be obliged to write whatever they had to write, re-
specting their own aifairs, or those oi' their friends, or of their
country, in a concealed manner, as those men have done.

These two books differ from all the rest ; for it is only these
that are filled with accounts of dreams and visions ; and this dif-

118 THE AGE OF REASON

ference arose from the situation the writers were in as prisoners
of war, or prisoners of state, in a foreign country, which obliged
them to convey even the most trifling information to each other,
and all their political projects or opinions, in obscure and met-
Fiphorical terms. They pretend to have dreamed dreams, and
seen visions, because it was unsafe f^r them to speak facts or
plain language. We ought, however, to suppose, that the per-
sons to wliom they wrote understood what they meant, and that
it was not intended any body else should. But these busy com-
mentators and priests have been puzzling their wits to find out
what it was not intended they should know, and with which they
have notliing to do.

Ezekiel and Daniel were carried prisoners to Babylon, under
the first captivity, in the time of Jehoiakim, nine years before the
second captivity in the time of Zedekiah. The Jews were then
still numerous, and had considerable force at Jerusalem ; and as
it is natural to suppose that men, in the situation of Ezekiel and
Daniel, would be meditating the recovery of their country, and
their own deliverance, it is reasonable to suppose, that the ac-
counts of dreams and visions, \vith which these books are filled,
are no other than a disguised mode of correspondence, to facilitate
those objects : it served them as a cypher, or secret alphabet
If they are not this, they are tales, reveries, and nonsense ; or at
least, a fanciful way of wearing ufT tlie wearisomeness of captivi-
ty ; but the presumption is, they were the former.

Ezekiel begins his books by speaking of a vision of cherubims,
a.nd of a irhcel rcithin a ^cheel, v/hich he says he saw by the river
Chebar, in the land of his captivity. Is it not reasonable to sup-
pose, that by the cherubims he meant the temple at Jerusalem,
where they had figures of cherubims ? and by a wheel within a
v/hecl, (which, as a figure, has always been understood to signify
pohtical contrivance) the project or means of recovering Jerusa-
lem ? In the latter part of this book, lie supposes himself trans-
ported to Jerusalem, and into the temple : and he refers back to the
vision on the river Chebar, and says, (chap. \Uii. vcr. 3) tliat this
last vision was like the vision on the river Chebar; which indi-
cates, that tliose pretended dreams and visions had for their object
the recovery of Jerusalem, and nothing further.

As to the romantic interpretations and applications, wild as tho
dreams and visions they undertake to explain, which commentators
and priests have made of those books, that of converting them
into thiurgs which they call prophecies, andniaking them bend to
times and circumstances, as far remote even as the jtresent day, it
shows the fraud or the extreme folly to which credulity or priest-
craft can go.

Scarcely any thing can be more absurd, than to suppose that
men situated as Ezekiel and Daniel were, whose country was
ov«r-run, and in the possession of the enemy, all their friends and

THE AGE OF REASO^. 119

relations in captivity abroad, or in slavery at home, or massacred,
or in continual danger of it ; scarcely any thing, I say, can be
more absurd, than to suppose that such m«n should find nothing
to do but that of employing their time and their thoughts about
what was to happen to other nations a thousand or two thousand
years after they were dead ; at the same time, nothing is more
natural, than that they should meditate the recovery of Jerusalem,
and their own deliverance ; and that this was the sole object of
all the obscure and apparently frantic writings contained in those
books.

In this sense, the mode of writing used in those two books be-
ing forced by necessity, and not adopted by choice, is not irration-
al ; but if we are to use the books as prophecies, they are false.
In the 29th chapter of Ezekiel, speaking of Egypt, it is said, (ver,
11,) JVbfoot oj" man should pass ihrougk it^ nor foot of beast should
pass through it ; neither shall it be inhabited for forty years.'''' This
is what never came to pass, and consequently it is false, as all the
books I have already reviewed are. I here close this part of the
subject.

In the former part of the ^Ige of Reason, I have spoken of Jo-
nah, and of the story of liim and the whale. A fit story for ridi-
cule, if it was written to be believed ; or of laughter, if it was in-
tended to try what credulity could swallow ; for if it could swallow
Jonah and the whale, it could swallow any thing.

But, as is already shown in the observations on the book of
Job, and of Proverbs, it is not always certain which of the books
in the Bible are originally Hebrew or only translations from the
books of the Gentiles into Hebrew ; and as the book of Jonah,
so far from treating of the afl'airs of the Jews, says nothing upon
that subject, but treats altogether of the Gentiles, it is more
probable that it is a book of the Gentiles than of the Jews ; and
that it has been written as a fable, to expose the nonsense and sat-
irise the vicious and mahgnant character of a Bible prophet, or a
predicting priest.

Jonah is represented, first, as a disobedient prophet, running
away fi-om his mission, and taking shelter aboard a vessel of the
Gentiles, bound from Joppa to Tarshish ; as if he ignorantly sup-
posed, by such a paltry contrivance, he could hide himself where
God could not find him. The vessel is overtaken by a storm at
sea ; and the mariners, all of whom are Gentiles, believing it to
be a judgment, on account of some one on board who had com-
mitted a crime, agreed to cast lots, to discover the offender ; and
the lot fell upon Jonah. But, before this, they had cast all their
wares and merchandize overboard, to lighten the vessel, while
Jonah, like a stupid fellow, was fast asleep in the hold.

After the lot had designated Jonah to be the offender, they
questioned him to know who and what he was ; and he told them
he rcas an Hebrew ; and the story implies, that he confessed him-

Ii20 THE AGE OF REASON.

self to be guilty. But these Gentiles, instead of sacrificing him
a't once, without pity or mercy, as a company of Bible prophets
or priests would have done by a Gentile in the same case, and as
it is related Samuel had done by Agag, and Moses by tlie wo-
men and children ; they endeavoured to save him, though at the
risk of their own lives ; for the account says, " .Verer//ie/ess,
(that is, though Jonah was a Jew, and a foreigner, and the cause
of all their misfortunes, and the loss of their cargo) (he men row-
id hard to bring Ike boat to land ; bid they could not, for the sea
wrought, and was tonpesluaus against themy Still, however, they
were unwilling to put tlie fate of the lot into execution ; and they
cried (says the account) unto the Lord, saying, " JVe beseech
thee, O Lord, let us not perish for this j«an's life, and luij not upon
us innocent blood ; for thou, O Lord, haM done as it pleased thee.^^
Meaning thereby, that they did not presume to judge Jonah guil-
ty, since that he might be innocent ; but that they considered the
lot that had fallen upon him as a decree of God, or as it pleased
God. The address of this prayer shows that the Gentiles wor-
shipped one Supreme Being, and that they were not idolaters, as
the Jews represented them to be. But the storm still continuing,
and the danger increasing, they put the fate of the lot into exe-
cution, and cast Jonah into the sea ; where, according to the sto-
ry, a great fish swallowed him up whole and alive.

We have now to consider Jonah securely housed from the storm
m the fish's belly. Here we are told that he prayed ; but the
prayer is a made up prayer, taken from various parts of the
Psalms, without any connection or consistency, and adapted to the
distress, but not at all to the condition, that Jonah was in. It is
such a prayer as a Gentile, who might know something of the
Psalms, could copy out for him. This circumstance alone, were
there no other, is sufficient to indicate that tlie whole is a made-up
story. The prayer, however, is supposed to have answered the
purpose, and the story goes on (taking up at the same time the
cant language of a Bible prophet,) saying, "T//e Lord spake unto
the fish, and it vomited out Jonah ujjon dry land."

Jonah then received a second mission to Ninevuh, with which
he sets out ; and we have now to consider him as a preacher. The
distress he is represented to have siifiorrd, the rcnifMiibrance of his
own disobedience as the cause of it, and the miraculous escape lie
is supposed to have had, were sufficient, one would conceive, to
have impressed him with sympathy and l)cnev()lonce in tiic execu-
tion of his mission ; but, instead of tliis, he enters the city with
denunciation and malediction in his mouth, crying, " Yctfortij days,
and JVincvah shall be ovcrlhrnu-n.''^

We have now to consider this supposed missionary in the last
act of his mission ; and here it is that the malevolent spirit of a
Bible-prophet, or of a predicting priest, appears in all the black-
ness of character, that men ascribe to the being they call the devil.

THE AGE OF REASON. 121

Having puolished his predictions, he withdrew, says the story,
to the east side of the city. But for what .'' not to contemplate, in
"retirement, the mercy of his Creator to himself, or to others, but
to wait, with malignant impatience, the destruction of Ninevah.
It came to pass, however, as the story relates, that the Niiievites
reformed, and that God, according to the Bible phrase, repented
him of the evil he had said he would do unto them, and did it not.
This, saith the first verse of the last chapter, displeased Jonah ex-
ceedingly, and he ivas very angi-y. His obdurate heart would rath-
er that all Ninevah should be destroyed, and every soul, young
and old, perish in its ruins, than that his prediction should not be
fulfilled. To expose the character of a prophet still more, a
gourd is made to grow up in the night, that promiseth him an
agreeable shelter from the heat of the sun, in the place to whic j
he is retired ; and the next morning it dies.

Here the rage of the prophet becomes excessive, and he is
ready to destroy himself "Zf is better', said he, for me to die tl.an
to /ire." This brings on a supposed expostulation between Jie
Almighty and the prophet ; irr which the former says, '■^Doest iiou
tvell to be angry for the gourd ? ^nd Jonah said, I do icell t > bt
angry even unto death ; Tfien said the Lord, Thou hast had p ty on
the gourd, for which thou hast not laboured neither madcd it to grow,
which came up in a night, and perished in a night ; and should not
I spare JVinevah, that great city, in which are more than three-score
thousand persoTis, that cannot discern between their i-ight liand and
their left ?"

Here is both the winding up of the satire, and the moral of the
fable. As a satire, it strikes against the character of all the Bible-
prophets, and against all the indiscriminate judgments upon men,
women, and children, with which this lying book, the Bible, ia
crowded ; such as Noah's flood, the destruction of the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah, the extirpation of the Canaanttes, even to
sucking infants, and women with child, because the same reflec-
tion, that there are more than three-score thousand persons that can-
not discern between their right hand and their left, meaning young
children, applies to all their cases. It satirizes also the suppos-
ed partiality of the Creator for one nation more than for another.

As a moral, it preaches against the malevolent spirit of predic-
tion ; for as certainly as a man predicts ill, he becomes inclined
to wish it. The pride of having his judgment right, hardens his
heart, till at last he beholds with satisfaction, or sees with disap-
pointment, the accomplishment or the failure of his predictions
This book ends with the same kind of strong and well-directed
point against prophets, prophecies, and indiscriminate judgments,
as the chapter that Benjamin Franklin made for the Bible, about
Abraham and the stranger, ends against the intolerant s'-'irit ©''re-
ligious persecution. Thus much for the book of Jonah.

Of the poetical parts of the Bible, that are called prophecies, I
11

122 THE AGE OF REASON.

have spoken in the former part of the ^ge of Reason, and aheady
in this : where I have said that the word prophet is the Bible word
for poet ; and that the flights and metaphors of those poets, many
of which have become obscure by the lapse of time and the change
of circumstances, have been ridiculously erected into things call-
ed prophecies and applied to purposes the writers never thought
of When a priest quotes any of those passages, he unriddles it
agreeably to his own vievrs, and imposes that explanation upon
his congregation as the meaning of the writer. The whore of
Btihijlon has been the common whore of all the priests, and each
has accused the other of keeping the strumpet ; so well do they
agree in their explanations.

There now remain only a few books, which they call the books
of the lesser propiiets ; and as I have already shown that the great-
er are impostors, it would be cowardice to disturb the repose of
the little ones Let them sleep then, in the arms of their nurses,
the priests, and both be forgotten together.

I have now gone through the Bible, as a man would go through
a wood with an axe on his shoulder, and fell trees. Here they lie;
and the priests, if they can, may replant them. They mav, per-
haps, stick them in the ground, but they will never make them
grow. — I pass on to the books of the New Testament.

THE i^EW TESTA3IEIVT.

The New Testament, they tell us, is founded upon the proph-
ecies, of the Old ; if so, it must follow the fate of its foundation.

As it is nothing extraordinary that a woman sliould I)e with child
before she was married, and that the son she might bring forth
should be executed, even unjustly ; I see no reason tor not believ-
ing that such a woman as Mary, and such a man as Joseph, and
Jesus, existed ; their mere exi.stence is a matter of inditierencc,
about which there is no ground, cither to believe, or to disbelieve,
and which comes under the common head ot", Jl maij be so ; and
what tlicn ? The probability, however, is, that there were such
persons, or at least such as resembled them in part of the circum-
stances, because almost all romantic stories liave been suggested
by some actual circumstance ; as the adventures of Robinson
Crusoe, not a word of which is true, were suggested by the case of
Alexander Selkirk.

It is not then the existence, or non-exL-Jtcnce, of the persons
that I trouble myself about ; it is the fable of Jesus Christ, as told
in the New Testament, and the wild and visionary doctrine raised
thereon, against which I contend. The story, taking it as it is
told, is blasphemously obscene. It gives an account of a young
woman engaged to be married, and while under this engagement,
she is, to speak plain language, debauched by a ghost, under the

THE AGE OF REASON. 123

impious pretence, (Luke, chap. i. ver. 35,) that 'Hhe Holy Ghost
shall come upon thee; and the power of the Highest shall overshadoto
thee.^^ Notwithstanding which, Joseph afterwards marries her,
cohabits with her as his wife, and in his turn rivals the ghost.
This is putting the story into intelligible language ; and when told
in this manner, there is not a priest but must be ashamed to own
it.*

Obscenity in matters of faith, however wrapped up, is always a
token of fable and imposture ; for it is necessary to our serious be-
lief in God, that we do not connect it with stories that run, as this
does, into ludicrous interpretations. This story is, upon the face
of it, the same kind of story as that of Jupiter and Leda, or Jupiter
and Europa, or any of the amorous adventures of Jupiter ; and
shows, as is already stated in the former part of the Jlg;e ofReasonj
that the Christian faith is built upon the heathen mythology.

As the historical parts of the New Testament, so far as concerns
Jesus Christ, are confined to a very short space of time, less than
two years, and all within the same country, and nearly to the same
spot, the discordance of time, place, and circumstance, which de-
tects the fallacy of the books of the Old Testament, and proves
them to be impositions, cannot be expected to be found here in the
same abundance. The New Testament, compared with the Old,
is like a farce of one act, in which there is not room for very
numerous violations of the unities. There are, however, some
glaring contradictions, which, exclusive of the fallacy of the pre-
tended prophecies, are sufficient to show the story of Jesus Christ
to be false.

I lay it down as a position which cannot be controverted, first,
that the agreement of all the parts of a story does not prove that
story to be true, because the parts may agree, and the whole may
be false ; secondly, that the disagreement of the parts of a story
proves the whole cannot he true. The agreement does not prove
truth, but the disagreement proves falsehood positively.

The history of Jesus Christ is contained in the four books as-
cribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The first chapter of
Matthew begins with giving a genealogy of Jesus Christ ; and in
the third chapter of Luke, there is also given a genealogy of Je-
sus Christ. Did these two agree, it would not prove the geneal-
ogy to be true, because it might, nevertheless, be a fabrication ;
but as they contradict each other in every particular, it proves
falsehood absolutely. If Matthew speaks truth, Luke speaks false-
hood ; and if Luke speaks truth, Matthew speaks falsehood ; and
as there is no authority for believing one more than the other,
there is no authority for behoving either ; and if they cannot
be believed even in the very first thing they say, and set out to
prove, they are not entitled to be believed in any thing they say af^

* Mary, the supposed virgin mother of Jesus, had several other children, sons and
daughters. See Mat. chap. xiii. ver. 55, 56.

1^4

THE AGE OF REASON.

terwards. Truth is an uniform thing ; and as to inspiration and
revelation, were we to admit it, it is impossible to suppose it can
be contradictory. Either then the men called apostles were im-

. postors, or the books ascribed to them have been written by othei
persons, and fathered upon them, as is the case in the Old Test

, ament.

The book of Matthew gives, chap. i. ver. 6, a genealogy by
name from David, up through Joseph, the husband of Mary, to
Christ ; and makes there to be ticenty-cight generations. The
book of Luke gives also a genealogy by name from Christ, throtigh
Joseph, the husband of Mary, down to David, and makes there
to he forty-three generations ; besides which, there are only the
two names of David and Joseph that are alike in the two lists. I
here insert both geneological lists, and for the sake of perspicuity
and comparison have placed them both in the same direction, that
is, from Joseph down to David.

Geneahgy, according toMatthetv.
Christ

2 Joseph

3 Jacob

4 Matthan

5 Eleazer

6 Eliud

7 Achim

8 Sadoc

9 Azor

10 Eliakim

11 Abiud

12 Zorobabel

13 Salathiel

14 Jechonias

15 Josias

16 Amon

17 Manasses

18 Ezekias

19 Achaz

20 Joatham

21 Ozias

22 Joram

23 Josaphat

24 Asa

25 Abia

26 Roboam

27 Solomon

28 David*

Genealogy, according to Luke

Christ
2 Joseph
3HeU

4 Matthat

5 Levi

6 Melchi

7 Janna

8 Joseph

9 Mattathias

10 Amos

11 Naum

12 Esli

13 Nagge

14 Maath

15 Mattathias

16 Semei

17 Joseph

18 Juda

19 Joanna

20 Rhesa

21 Zorobabel

22 Salathiel

23 Neri

24 Melchi

25 Addi

26 Cosam

27 Elmodam

28 Er

• From the birth of David to tlie birth of Clirist is upwards of 1080 years : and «»
tlie life-time of Cliritt is not included, there are but 27 full generations. To find.

THE AGE OF UEASOX.

125

Genealogy f according toMatlhew.

Genealogy, according to Lnike

29 Jose

30 Eliezer

31 Jorim

32 Matthat

33 Levi

34 Simeon

35 Juda

36 Joseph

37 Jonan

38 Elakim

39 Melea

40 Menan

41 Mattatha

42 Nathan

43 David

Now, if these men, Matthew and Luke, set out with a falsehood
between them, (as these two accounts show they do) in the very
commencement of their history of Jesus Christ, and of whom, and
of what he was, what authority (as I have before asked) is there
left for believing the strange things they tell us afterwards ? If
they cannot be believed in their account of his natural genealogy,
how are we to believe them, when they tell us, he was the son of
God, begotten by a ghost ; and that an angel announced this in
secret to his mother ? If they lied in one genealogy, why are we
to believe them in the other ? If his natural be manufactured,
which it certainly is, why are not we to suppose, that his celestial
genealogy is manufactured also ; and that the whole is fabulous ?
Can any man of serious reflection hazard his future happiness
upon the belief of a story naturally impossible ; repugnant to ev-
ery idea of decency ; and related by persons already detected of
falsehood ? Is it not more safe, that we stop ourselves at the plain,
pure, and unmixed belief of one God, which is deism, than that
we commit ourselves on an ocean of improbable, irrational, inde-
cent, and contradictory tales ?

The first question, however, upon the books of the New Test-
ament, as upon those of the Old, is, are they genuine ? Were they
written by the persons to whom they are ascribed ? for it is upon
this ground only, that the strange things related therein have been
credited. Upon this point, there is no direct proof for or against;

therefore, the average age of eadi person raetitioned in t\ie list, at the time his first
eon was born, it is only necessary to divide 1080 by 27, which gives 40 years for each
person. As the life-time of man was then but of the same extent it is now, it is an
absurdity to suppose, that 27 following generations should all be old bachelors, before
tliey married ; and the more so, when we are told, that Solomon, the next in succes-
sion to David, had a house full of wives and mistresses before he was 21 years of age.
So far from this genealogy being a solemn truth, it is not even a reasonable lie. The
\isi of Luke gives about 26 years for the average age, and this is too much.

11*

1-6 THE AGE OF REASOX.

and all that this state of a case proves, is donblfulncss ; and doubt-
fulness is the opposite of belief The state, therefore, tliat the
books are in, proves ag-ainst themselves, as far as this kind of proof
can go.

But, exclusive of this, the presumption is, that the books call-
ed the Evangelists, and ascribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John ; were not written by 3Ialthew, Mark, Luke, and John ;
and that they are impositions. The disordered sate of the histo-
ry in these four books, the silence of one book upon matters relafe-
ed in the other, and the disagreement that is to be found among
them, implies, that they are the production of some unconnected
individuals, many years after tlie things they pretend to relate,
each of whom made his own legend ; and not the writings of men
living intimately together, as the men called apostles are suppos-
ed to have done : in fine, that they have been manufactured, as
the books of the old testament have been, by other persons than
those whose names they bear.

The story of the angel announcing, what the church calls, the
immaculate conception, is not so much as mentioned in the books
ascribed to Mark and John ; and is differently related in IMattJiew
and Luke. The former says, the angel appeared to Joseph ; the
latter says, it was to Mary ; but either, Josepii or Mary, was the
worst evidence that could have been thought of; for it was oth-
ers that should have testified /or tkem, and not they for themselves.
Were any girl that is now with child to say, and even to swear it,
that she was gotten with child by a ghost", and that an angel told
her so, would she be believed } Certainly she would not. Why
then are we to believe the same thing of another girl whom we
never saw, told by nobody knows who, nor when, nor where ?
How strange and inconsistent is it, that the same circumstance
that would weaken the belief even of a probable story, should be
given as a motive for believing this one, that has upon the face of
it every token of absolute impossibility and imposture.

The story of Herod destroying all the children under two years
old, belongs altogether to the book of Matthew : not one of the
rest mentions any tiling about it. Had such a circumstance been
true,. the universality of it must have made it known to all the
writers ; and the thing would have been too striking to have been
omitted by any. This writer tells us, that Jesus escaped this
slaughter, because Joseph and Mary were warned by an angel to
flee with him into Egypt ; but he forgot to make any provision for
John, who was then under two years of age. John, iiowcver,
who staid behind, fared as well as Jesus who fled ; and therefore
the story circumstantially belies itself

Not any two of these writers agree in reciting, cxacihi in the
name words, the written inscription, short as it is, wliich tiiey teJl
us Avas put over Christ when he was crucified : and besides this,
Mark says, he was crucified at the third hour, (nine in the morn-

THE AGE OF REASON. 127

ing ;) and John says, it was the sixth hour, (twelve at noon.*)

The inscription is thus stated in those books.

Matthew — This is Jesus the King of the Jews.

Mark The king of the Jews.

Luke This is the king of the Jews.

John Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews.

We may infer from these circumstances, trivial as they are,
that those writers, whoever tliey were, and in whatever time they
lived, were not present at the scene. The only (me of the men,
called apostles, who appears to have been near the spot, was Pe-
ter ; and when he was accused of being one of Jesus's followers,
it is said, (Blatthew, chap. xxvi. ver. 74,) " Then Peter began to
curse and to swear, saving, I knoiv not the man ;" yet we are now
called upon to believe the same Peter, convicted, by their own ac-
count, of perjury. For what reason, or on what authority shall
we do this?

The accounts that are given of the circumstances, that they
tell us attended the crucifixion, are differently related in those
four books.

The book ascribed to 3Iatthew says, ^^ There was darkness &ver
all the land from the sixth hour unto the ninth horn — that the veil of
the temple %vas rent in twain from the top to the bottom — that there
ivas an earthquake — that the rocks rent — that the graves opened,
that the bodies of many of the saints that slept arose and came out
of their graves after the resurrectiony and went into the holy ciiy, atld
appeared unto many. ^^ Such is the account which this dashing
writer of the book of Matthew gives ; but in which he is not sup-
ported by the writers of the other books.

The writer of the book ascribed to Mark, in detailing the cir-
cumstances of the crucifixion, makes no mention of any earth-
quake, nor of the rocks rending, nor of the graves opening, nor
of the dead men walking out. The writer of the book of Luke
is silent also upon the same points. And as to the writer of the
book of John, though he details all the circumstances of the cru-
cifixion down to the burial of Christ, he says nothing about ei-
ther the darkness — the veil of the temple — the earthquake — the
rocks — the graves — nor the dead men.

Now if it had been true, that those things had happened ; and
if the writers of these books had lived at the time they did hap-
pen, and had been the persons they are said to be, namely, the
four men called apostles, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it was
not possible for them, as true historians, even without the aid of
inspiration, not to have recorded them. The things, suppos-
ing them to have been facts, were of too much notoriety not to

* According to John, tlie sentence was not passed till about the sixth hour, (noon),
and consequently the execution could not be till the afternoon ; but Mark says express-
ly, tliat he was crucified at the third hour, (nine in the morning), chap. xv. 25 ; John,
cliap. xix. ver. 14

128 THE AGE OF REASON.

have been known, and of too much importance not to have been
told. All these supposed apostles must have been witnesses of
the earthquake, if there had been any ; for it was not possible
for them to have been absent from it ; the opening of the graves
and the resurrection of the dead men, and their walking about
the city, is of greater importance than the earthquake. An
earthquake is always possible, and natural, and proves nothing ;
but this opening of the graves is supernatural, and directly in
point to their doctrine, their cause, and their apostleship. Had
it been true, it would have filled up whole chapters of those books,
and been the chosen theme and general chorus of all the writers j
but instead of this, little and trivial things, and mere prattling
conversations of, he said ihis, and she said that, are often tedious-
ly detailed, while this most important of all, had it been true, is
passed off in a slovenly manner by a single dash of the pen, and
that by one writer only, and not so much as hinted at by the
rest.

It is an easy thing to tell a lie, but it is difficult to support the
lie after it is told. The writer of the book of Matthew should
have told us who the saints were that came to life again, and
went into the city, and what became of them afterwards, and who
it was that saw them ; for he is not hardy enough to say he saw
them himself; whether they came out naked, and all in natural
buff, he-saints and she-saints ; or whether they came full dress-
ed, and where they got their dresses ; whether they went to their
former habitations, and reclaimed their wives, their husbands,
and their property, and how they were received ; whether they
entered ejectments for the recovery of their possessions, or
brought actions of crim. con. against their rival interlopers ;
whether they remained on earth, and followed their former oc-
cupation of preaching or working ; or whether they died again,
or went back to their graves alive, and buried themselves.

Strange indeed, that an army of saints should return to life,
and nobody know who they were, nor who it was that saw them,
and that not a word more should be said upon the subject, nor
these saints have any thing to tell us ! Had it been the prophets,
who (as we are told) had formerly prophecied of these things, ihey
must have had a ^reat deal to say. They could have told us
every thing, and we should have had posthumous prophecies,
with notes and commentaries upon the first, a little better at least
than we have now. Had it been Moses, and Aaron, and Joshua,
and Samuel, and David, not .in unconverted Jew had remained in
all Jerusalem. Had it bee« John the Baptist, and the saints of
the time then present, every body would have known them, and
they would have out-preached aivd o\it-famcd all the other apos-
tles. JJut instead of this, these saints are made to pop up, like
Jonah's gourd in the night, for no purpose at all but to wither in
the morning. Thus much for this part of the story.

THE AGE OF REASON. 129

The tale of the resurrection follows that of the crucifixion ; and
in this as well as in that, the writers, whoever they were, disagree
so much, as to make it evident that none of them were there.

The book of Matthew states, that when Christ was put in the
sepulchre, the Jews applied to Pilate for a watch or a guard to
be placed over the sepulchre, to prevent the body being stolen
by the disciples ; and that in consequence of this request, the
sepulchre was made sure, seali7ig {he stone that covered the mouth,
and setting a watch. But the other books say nothing about
this application, nor about the sealing, nor the guard, nor the
watch ; and according to their accounts, there were none.
Matthew, however, follows up this part of the story of the guard
or the watch with a second part, that I shall notice in the con-
clusion, as it serves to detect the fallacy of those books.

The book of Matthew continues its account, and says, (chap.
xxviii. ver. 1) that at the end of the Sabbath, as it began to
dawn, towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene
and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre. Mark says it was
sun-rising, and John says it was dark. Luke says it was Mary
Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and
other women, that came to the sepulchre ; and John states, that
Mary Magdalene came alone. So well do they agree about their
first evidence ! they all, however, appear to have known most
about Mary Magdalene ; she was a woman of large acquaintance,
and it was not an ill conjecture that she might be upon the stroll.

The book of Matthew goes on to say, (ver. 2,) " And behold
there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descend-
ed from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the
door, and sat upon it." But the other books say nothing about
any earthquake, nor about the angel rolling back the stone, and
sitting upon it ; and according to their account, there was no
angel sitting there. Mark says the angel was ivithin the sepul-
chre, sitting on the right side. Luke says there were two, and
they were both standing up ; and John says they wore both sit-
ting down, one at the head and the other at the feet.

Matthew says, that the angel that was sitting upon the stone
on the outside of the sepulchre, told the two Marys that Christ
was risen, and that the women went away quickly. Mark says,
that the women, upon seeing the stone rolled away, and wonder-
ing at it, Avent into the sepulchre, and that it was the angel that
was sitting within on the right side, that told them so. Luke
says, it was the two angels that were standing up ; and John
says, it was Jesus Christ himself that told it to Mary Magdalene ;
and that she did not go into the sepulchre, but only stooped down
and looked in.

Now, if the writers of these four books had gone into a court
of justice to prove an alibi (for it is of the nature of an alibi that
is here attempted to be proved, namely, the absence of a dead

130 THE AGE OF REASOX.

body by supernatural means,) and had they given their evidence
in the same contradictory manner as it is here given, they would
have been in danger of having their ears cropt for perjury, and
would have justly deserved it. Yet this is the evidence, and
these are the books, that have been imposed upon the world, as
being given by divine inspiration, and as the unchangeable word
of God.

The writer of the book of Matthew, after giving this accoimt,
relates a story that is not to be found in any of the other books,
and which is the same I have just before alluded to,

" Now, says he, (that is, after the conversation the wo-
men had had with the angel sitting upon the stone,) behold some
of the watch (meaning the watch that he had said had been plac-
ed over the sepulchre) came into the city, and showed unto the
chief priests all the things that were done ; and when they were
assembled with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave large
money unto the soldiers, saying. Say ye, that his disciples came
by night, and stole him away while we slept ; and if this come to
the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So
they took the money, and did as they were taught ; and this say-
ing (that his disciples stole him away) is commonly reported
among the Jews until this day."

The expression, unlil this day, is an evidence that the book as-
cribed to Matthew was not written by Matthew, and that it has
been manufactured long after the times and things of which it
pretends to treat ; for the expression implies a great length of
intervening time. It would be inconsistent in us to speak in this
manner of any thing happening in our own time. To give,
therefore, intelligible meaning to the expression, we must sup-
pose a lapse of some generations at least, for this manner of
speaking carries the mind back to ancient time.

The absurdity also of the story is worth noticing ; for it shows
the writer of the book of Matthew to have been an exceedingly
weak and foolish man. He tells a story, that contradicts itself
in point of possibility ; for though the guard, if there were any,
might be made to say that the body was taken away while they
were asleep, and to give that as a reason for their not having
prevented it, that same sleep must also have prevented their
knowing how, and by whom it was done ; and yet they are made
to say, that it was the disciples who did it. Were a man to ten-
der his evidence of something tliat he should say was done, and
of the manner of doing it, and of the person who did it while he
was asleep, and could know nothing of the matter, sucli evidence
could not be received : it will do well enough for Testament
evidence, but not for any thing whore truth is concerned.

I come now to that part of the evidence in those books, that
respects the pretended appearance of Christ after this pretended
resurrection.

THE AGE Of REASON. 131

The writer of the book of Matthew relates, that the angel that
was sitting on the stone at the mouth of the sepulchre, said to the
two Marys, chap, xxviii. ver. 7, "jBe/to/rf Christ is gone before
you into Galilee, there ye shall see him ; lo, J have toldyou.''^ And
the same writer, at the two next verses (8,9,) makes Christ him-
self to speak to the same purpose to these women, immediately-
after the angel had told it to them, and that they ran quickly to
tell it to the disciples ; and at the 16th verse it is said, " Then
the eleven disciples went aivay into Galilee, into a mountain where
Jesus had appointed them ; and, when they saw him, they wor-
shipped him. '

But the writer of the book of John tells us a story very differ-
ent to this ; for he says, chap. xx. ver. 1 9, " Then the same day
at evenhig, bcins; the first day of the teeck, (that is, the same day
that Christ is said to have risen,) when the doors were shid, cohere
the disciples were assembled, far fear of the Jeics, came Jesus and
stood in the midst of //u);i."

According to iVIatthew, the eleven were marching to Galilee,
to meet Jesus in a mountain, by his own appointment, at the very
time when, according to John, they were assembled in another
place, and that not by appointment but in secret, for fear of the
Jews.

The writer of the book of Luke contradicts that of Matthew
more pointedly than John does ; for he says expressly, that the
meeting was in Jerusalem the evening of the same day that he
(Christ) rose, and that the eleven were there. See Luke, chap.
xxiv. ver. 13, 33.

Now, it is not possible, unless we admit these supposed disci-
ples the right of wilful lying, that the writer of these books could
be any of the eleven persons called disciples ; for if, according
to Matthew, the eleven went into Galilee to meet Jesus in a
mountain by his own appointment, on the same day that he is
said to have risen, Luke and John must have been two of that
eleven ; yet the writer of Luke says expressly, and John implies
as much, that the meeting was, that same day, in a hou«e in Je-
rusalem ; and, on the other hand, if, according to Luke and John,
the eleven were assembled in a house in Jerusalem, Matthew
mu&t have been one of that eleven ; yet Matthew says, the
meeting was in a mountain in Galilee, and consequently the evi-
dence given in those books destroys each other.

The writer of the book of Mark says nothing about any meet-
ing in Galilee ; but he says, chap. xvi. ver. 12, that Christ, after
his resurrection, appeared in another form to two of them, as
they walked into the country, and that these two told it to the
residue, who would not believe them. Luke also tells a story, in
which he keeps Christ employed the whole of the day of this
pretended resurrection, until the evening, and which totally in-
validates the account of going to the mountain in Galilee. He

132 THE AGE OF REASOX.

says, that two of them, without saying which two, went that same
day to a village called Emmaus, threescore furlongs (seven miles
and a half) from Jerusalem, and that Christ, in disguise, went
with them, and staid with them unto the evening, and supped with
them, and then vanished out of their sight, and re-appeared that
same evening, at the meeting of the eleven in Jerusalem.

Tiiis is the contradictory manner in which the evidence of this
pretended re-appearance of C'hrist is stated ; the only point in
which the writers agree, is the skulking privacy of that re-ap-
pearance ; for whether it was in the recess of a mountain in
Galilee, or in a shut up house in Jerusalem, it was still skulking.
To what cause then are we to assign this skulking .'* On the
one hand, it is directly repugnant to the supposed or pretended
end — that of convincing the world that Christ was risen ; and,
on the other hand, to have asserted the publicity of it, would have
exposed the writers of those books to public detection, and there-
lore they have been under the necessity of making it a private
affair.

As to the account of Christ being seen by more than five hun-
dred at once, it is Paul only who says it, and not the five hundred
who say it for themselves. It is, therefore, the testimony of but
one man, and that too of a man, who did not, according to the
same account, believe a word of the matter himself, at the time
it is said to have happened. His evidence, supposing him to
have been the writer of the 15th chapter of Corinthians, where
this account is given, is like that of a man, who comes into a court
of justice to swear, that what he had sworn before is false. A
man may oflen see reason, and he has too always tlie right of
changing his opinion ; but this liberty does not extend to matters
of fact.

I now come to the last scene, that of the ascension into heaven.
Here all fear of the Jews, and of every ihing else, must neces-
sarily have been out of the question : it was that which, if true,
was to seal the whole ; and upon which the reality of the future
mission of the disciples was to rest for proof Words, whether
declarations or promises, that passed in private, cither in the re-
cess of a mountain in (iulilec, or in a slmt-up house in Jerusalem,
even supposing them to have been spoken, could not be evidence
in j)ul)lic ; it was therefore necessary that this last scene should
preclude the possibility of denial and dis[)ut(! ; and that it should
be, as I have stated in the former part of the c/Z^e of Reaaon^ as
public and as visible as the sun at noon day : at least it ought
to have been as public as the crucitixion is reported to have
been. IJut to come to the point.

In the first place the writer of the book of Matthew does not
say a syllaide about it ; neither does the writer of the book of
John. 'J'his being the case, is it possible to suppose that tlioso
writers, who afl'ect to be even minute in other matters, would

THE AGE OF REASON. 133

have been silent upon this, had it been true ? The writer of the
hook of Mark passes it oli'in a careless, slovenly manner, with a
single dash of the pen, as if he was tired of romancing, or asham-
ed of the story. So also does the writer of Luke. And even
between these two, there is not an apparent agreement, as to
the place where this final parting is said to have been.

The book of Mark says, that Christ appeared to the eleven as
they sat at meat ; alluding to the meeting of the eleven at Je-
rusalem : he then states the conversation that he says passed at
that meeting ; and immediately after says (as a schooi-boy would
finish a dull story) " So then, after the Lord had s.poken unto
them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand
of God." But the writer of Luke says, that the ascension was
from Bethany ; that he (Christ) led them out as far as Bethany^
and was jiarted from them there, and was carried up into heaven.
So also was Mahomet : and as to Moses, the apostle Jude says,
ver. 9, That Michael and Hie devil disputed about his body.
While we believe such fables as these, or either of them, we be-
lieve unworthily of the Almighty.

I have now gone through the examination of the four books
ascribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John ; and when it is
considered that the whole space of time, from the crucifixion to
what is called the ascension, is but a few days, apparently not
more than three or four, and that all the circumstances are re-
ported to have happened nearly about the same spot, Jerusalem ;
it is, I believe impossible to find, in any story upon record, so
many and such glaring absurdities, contradictions, and false-
hoods, as are in those books. They are more numerous and
striking than I had any expectation of finding, when I began
this examination, and far more so tlian I had any idea of, when I
wrote the former part of the Jlge of Reason. I had then neither
Bible or Testament tc refer to, nor could I procure any. My
own situation, even as to existence, was becoming every day
more precarious ; and as I was willing to leave sometbrng be-
hind me upon the subject, I was obliged to be qaiclv and concise
The quotations I then made were from memory only, but they
are correct ; and the opinions I have advanced in that work are
the efliect of the most clear and long established conviction — that
the Bible and the Testament are impositions upon the world —
that the fall of man — the account of Jesus Christ being the Son
of God, and of his dying to appease the wrath of God, and of
salvation by that strange means, are all fabulous inventions, dis-
honourable to the wisdom and power of the Almighty — that the
only true religion is Deism, by which I then meant, and now
mean, the belief of one God, and an imitation of his moral char-
acter, or the practice of what are called moral virtues — and that
it was upon this only (so far as religion is concerned) that 1

12

134 THE AGE OF REASON

rested all my hopes of happiness hereafter. So say I now — and
so help me God.

But to return to the subject. — Though it is impossible, at this
distance of time, to ascertain as a fact who were the writers of
those four books, (and this alone is sufficient to hold them in
doubt, and where we doubt we do not believe) it is not difficult
to ascertain negatively that they were not written by the persons
to whom they are ascribed. The contradictions in those books
demonstrate two things :

First, that the writers cannot have been eye-witnesses and
ear-witnesses of tlie matters they relate, or they would have re-
lated them whhout those contradictions ; and consequently that
the books have not been written by the persons called apostles,
who are supposed to have been witnesses of this kind.

Secondly, that the writers, whoever they were, have not acted
in concerted imposition, but each writer, separately and individu-
ally for himself, and without the knowledge of the other.

The same evidence that applies to prove the one, applies equal-
ly to prove both cases ; that is, that the books were not written
by the men called the apostles, and also that they are not a con-
certed imposition. As to inspiration, it is altogether out of the
question ; we may as well attempt to unite truth and falsehood,
as inspiration and contradiction.

If four men are eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses to a scene,
they will, without any concert between them, agree as to the
time and place when and where that scene happened. Their
individual knowledge of the thing-, each one knowing it for hun-
self, renders concert totally unnecessary ; the one will not say
it was in a mountain in the country, and the other at a house in
town ; the one will not say it was at sun-rise, and the other that
it was dark. For in whatever place it was, at whatever time it
was, they know it equally alike.

And, on the other hand, if four men concert a story, they will
make their separate relations of that story agree, and corroborate
with each other to sujjport the whole. Tliat concert supplies the
want of fact in the one case, as the knowledge of the fact super-
cedes, in the other case, the necessity of a concert. The same
contradictions, therefore, that prove tliere has been no concert,
prove also that the reporters liad no knowledge of the fact (or
rather of that which they relate as a fact,) and detect also the
falsehood of tiieir reports. Those books, therefore, liave neither
been written i)y the men called apostles, nor by impostors in con-
cert. How then have they been written ?

I am not one of those who are fond of believing there is much
of that whicli is called wilful lying, or lying originally ; except
in the case of men setting up to be prophets, as in the Old Tes-
tament : for prophesying is lying professionally. In almost all
other cases, it is not difficult to discover the progress, by which

THE AGE OP REASON^. 135

even simple supposition, with the aid of credulity, will, in time,
grow into a lie, and at last be told as a fact ; and whenever we
can find a charitable reason for a thing of this kind, we ought
not to indulge a severe one.

The story of Jeaus Christ appearing after he was dead, is the
story of an apparition, such as timid imaginations can always ere-'
ate in vision, and credulity believe. Stories of this kind had
been told of the assassination of Julius Coesar, not many years
before, and they generally have their origin in violent deaths,
or in the execution of innocent persons.^ In cases of this kind,
compassion lends its aid, and benevolently stretches the story.
It goes on a little and a little farther, till it becomes a most cer-
tain triUh. Once start a ghost, and credulity fills up the history
of its life, and assigns the cause of its appearance ! one tells it
one way, another another way, till there are as many stories
about the ghost and about the proprietor of the ghost, as there
are about Jesus Christ in these four books.

The story of the appearance of Jesus Christ is told with that
strange mixture of the natural and impossible, that distinguishes
legendary tale from fact. He is represented as suddenly coming
in and going out when the doors are shut, and of vanishing out
of sight, and appearing again, as one would conceive of an im-
substantial vision ; then again he is hungry, sits down to meat,
and eats his supper. But as those who tell stories of this kind,
never provide for all the cases, so it is here : they have told us,
that when he arose he left his grave clothes behind him ; but
they have forgotten to provide other clothes for him to appear in
afterwards, or tell to us what he did with them when he ascend-
ed ; whether he stripped all oflf, or went up clothes and all. In
the case of Elijah, they have been careful enough to make him
throw down his mantle 5 how it happened not to be burnt in the
chariot of fire, they also have not told us. But as imagination
supphesall deficiencies of this kind, we may suppose, if we please,
that it was made of salamander's wool.

Those who are not much acquainted with ecclesiastical histo-
ry, may suppose that the book called the 'New Testament has
existed ever since the time of Jesus Christ, as they suppose that
the books ascribed to Moses have existed ever since the time of
Moses. But the fact is historically otherwise ; there was no
such book as the New Testament till more than three hundred
years after the time that Christ is said to have lived.

At what time the books ascribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John, began to appear, is altogether a matter of uncertainty.
There is not the least shadow of evidence of who the persons were
that wrote them, noj- at what time they were written ; and they
might as well have been called by the names of any of the other
supposed apostles, as by the names they are now called. The
originals are not in the possession of any Christian Church exist"

I

136 THE AGE OF REASON.

ing, any more than the two tables of stone written on, they pre-
tend, by the finger of God, upon mount Sinai, and given to Moses,
are in the possession of the Jews. And even if they were, there
is no possibihty of proving the hand writing in either case. At
the time those books were written there was no printing, and con-
sequently there could be no pubhcation, otherwise than by writ-
ten copies, which any man might make or alter a-t pleasure, and
call them originals. Can we suppose it is consistent with the wis-
dom of the Almighty, to commit himself and his will to man, upon
such precarious means as these, or that it is consistent we should
pin our faith upon such uncertainties? We cannot make nor alter,
nor even imitate, so much as one blade of grass that he has made,
and yet we can make or alter ivords of God as easily as words of
man.*

About three hundred and fifty years after the time that Christ is
said to have lived, several writings of the kind I am speaking of,
were scattered in the hands of divers individuals ; and as the
church had begun to form itself into a hierarchy, or church govern-
ment, with temporal powers, it set itself about collecting them into
a code, as we now see them, called The JVeiv Testament. They
decided by vote, as I have before said in the former part of the
*3g-e of Reason, which of those writings, out of the collection they
had made, should be the word of God, and which should not. The
Rabbins of the Jews had decided, by vote, upon the books of the
Bible before.

As the object of the church, as is the case in allnational esiab-
lishments of churches, was power and revenue, and terror the
means it used : it is consistent to suppose, that the most miracu-
lous and wonderful of the writings they had collected stood the
best chance of being voted. And as to the authenticity of tlie
books, the vote stands m the place of it ; for it can be traced no
higher.

Disputes, however, ran high among the people then calling
themselves Christians ; not only as to points of doctine, but as to
the authenticity of the books. In the contest between the per-
sons called St. Augusfme and Fauste, about the year 400, the lat-
ter says, "The books called the Evangelists have been composed
long after the times of the apostles, by some obscure men, who,
fearing that the world would not give credit to their relation of

* The former part of the ^ge of Reason has not hocn published two years, and
tlioro is already an expression in ii that is not iniiic The expression is, The book
of Luh-e teas carried by a majority of one voice onli/. It may Ijc true, but it is not
I that have said it. Some person, who might know of the circumstance, has added it
in a niKe at tiie bottom of the page in some of the editions, printed either in England
or in America ; and the printers, after that, have erected it into tlie body of ihe work,
and made mn iJie author of it. If lliis lias liap|)ened widiiii sncli a sliurt space of time,
notwitjislandiiig llie aid of ])riutii)j(, which prevents the alteration of copies individu-
ally ; what may not have happened in much greater length of time, when there was no
printin", and when any man who could write could make .\ wiliicu copy, and call it
an original, by 3latllicw, Mark, Lidve, or John.

THE AGE OF REASON. 137

matters of which they could not be informed, have published them
under the names of the apostles ; and which are so full of sottish-
ness and discordant rcJations, that there is neither agreement nor
connection between them."

And in another place, addressing himself to the advocates of
those books, as being the word of God, he says, " It is thus that
your predecessors have inserted in the scriptures of our Lord,
many things, which, though they carry his name, agree not with
his doctrines. This is not surprising, since thattve have often prov-
ed that these things have not been Written by himself, nor by his
apostles, but that tor the greatest part they are founded upon tales,
upon va<^ reports, and put together by I know not what, half
Jews, with but little agreement between them ; and which they
have nevertheless published under the names of the apostles of our
Lord, and have thus attributed to them their own errors and their
lies.''*

The reader will see by these extracts, that the authenticity of
the books of the New Testament was denied, and the books treat-
ed as tales, forgeries, and lies, at the time they were voted to be
the word of God. But the interest of the church, with the assist-
ance of the faggot, bore down the opposition, and at last suppress-
ed all investigation. Miracles followed upon miracles, if we will
believe them, and men were taught to say they believed whether
they believed or not. But (by way of throwiug in a thought) the
French Revolution has excommunicated the church from the pow-
er of working miracles : she has not been able, with the assistance
of all her sahits, to work one miracle since the revolution began ;
and as she never stood in greater need than now, we may, without
the aid of divination, conclude, that all her tbrmcr miracles were
tricks and lies.j

* I have taken tliese twoBxtj'acts from Boulanger's Life of Paul, written in French ;
Koulaiiger has quoted them from tl»e writings of Augustine against Faiiste, to which
lie refers.

t Boulanger, in his Life of Paul, has collected from the ecclesiastical histories, and
the writings of the fathers, as tliey arc calletl, several matters which show the opinions
diat prevailed among tJie different .sects of Christians at the time the Testament, as we
novv see it, was voted to be tlie word of God. The following extracts are from tlie
second chapter of (hat work.

" The Marcionisb;, (.a Christian sect), assured that the evangelists were filled with
falsities. The Manicheens, who formed a very numerous sect at the commencement
of Christianity, rejected as false, all the Neio Testament ; and showed other writ-
ings quite different that they gave for authentic. The Corinthians, like the ftlarcion-
ists, admitlfid not the Acts of the Apostles. The Encratites, and the Sevenians, adopt-
ed neitiier the Acts nor the Epistles of Paul. Chrysostonie, in a homily which he made
upon tlie Acts of the Apostles, says, that in his time, about the year 400, many people
knew nothing either of the author or of the book. St. Irene, who lived before that
time, repojts tliat the Valeutinians, like several other sects of the Christians, accused
tlie Scriptures of l>eing filled with imperfections, errors, and contradictions. The
Ebionites or Nazarnnes, who wore the first Christians, rejected all the Epistles of Paul,
and regarded hitn as an impostor. They report, amon| other things, that he was on-
einally a Pagan, that he came to Jerusalem, where he lived some time ; and that hav-
ing a miud to marry the daughter of the high priest, he caused himself to be circum-

12#

138 THE AGE OF REASON.

When we consider the lapse of more than three hundred years
intervening between the time that Clirist is said to have lived and
the time the New Testament was formed into a book, we must see,
even without; the assistance of historical evidence, the exceeding
uncertainty there is of its authenticity. The authenticity of the
book of Homer, so far as regards the authorship, is much better
established than that of the New Testament, though Homer is a
thousand years the most ancient. It was only an exceeding good
poet that could have written the book of Homer, and therefore few
men only could have attempted it ; and a man capable of doing it
Would not have thrown away his own fame by giving it to another
In like manner, there were but few that could have composed Eu-
clid's Elements, because none but an exceeding <;ood creometrician
could have been the author of that work.

But with respect to the books of the New Testament, particular-
ly such parts as tell us of the resurrection and ascension of Christ,
any person who could tell a story of an apparition, or of a man's
walking, could have made such books ; for the story is most wretch-
edly told. The chance, therefore, of forgery in the Testament, is
millions to one greater than in the case of Homer or Euclid. Of
the numerous priests or parsons of the present day, bishops and all,
every one of them can make a sermon, or translate a scrap of
Latin, especially if it has been translated a thousand times betbre ;
but is there any amongst them that can write poetry like Homer,
or science like Euclid.^ The sum total of a parson's learning, with
very few exceptions, is a h ah, and hie ha;c, hoc; and their know-
ledge of science is three times one is three ; and this is more
than sufficient to have enabled them, had they lived at the time, to
have written all the books of the New Testament.

As the opportunities of forgery were greater, so also was the in-
ducement. A man could gain no advantage by writing under the
name of Homer or Euclid ; if he could write equal to them, it
would be better that he wrote under his own name ; if inferior, he
could not succeed. Pride would prevent the former, and impossi-
bility the latter. But with respect to such books as compose the
Now Testament, all fire inducements were on the side of lorgery.
The best imagined history that could have been made, at the dis-
tance of two or three hundred years after the time, could not have
passed for an original under the name of the real writer ; the only
chance of success lay in forgery, for the church wanted pretence
for its new doctrine, and truih and talents were out of the ques-
tion.

But as it is not uncommon (as before observed) to relate stories
of persons walking after they are dead, and of ghosts and appari-
tions of such as have fallen by some violent or extraordinary

ciscfl ; but that not being able to obtain her, lie quiiri-ellod witJi tlie Jews, and wrote
against eiicumcision, ntKl against the observation of llie sabbath, ami against all the
legal ordinances."

THE AGE OF REASON. 139

means ; and as the people of that day were in tlie habit of be-
lieving such things, and of the appearance of angels, and also of
devils, and of their getting into people's insides, and shaking them
like a fit of an ague, and of their being cast out again as if by an
emetie — (Mary Magdalene, the book of Mark tells us, had brought
up, or been brought to bed of seven devils ;) it was nothing extra-
ordinary that some story of this kind should get abroad of the
person called Jesus Christ, and become afterwards the foundation
of the four books ascribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Each writer told the tale as he heard it, or thereabouts, and gave
to his book the name of the saint or the apostle whom tradition had
given as the eye-witness. It is only upon this ground that the con-
tradictions in those books can be accounted for ; and if this be not
the case, they are downright impositions, lies, and forgeries, with-
out even the apology of credulity.

That they have been written by a sort of half Jews, as the fore-
going quotations mention, is discernible enough. The frequent
references made to that chief assassin and impostor Moses, and to
the men called prophets, establishes this point ; and, on the other
hand, the church has complimented the fraud, by admitting the
Bible and the Testament to reply to each other. Between the
Christian Jew and the Christian Gentile, the thing called a pro-
phecy, and the thing prophesied ; the type, and the thing typified
the sign and the thing signified, have been industriously rum-
maged up, and fitted together like old locks and pick-lock keys.
The story, foolishly enough told of Eve and the serpent, and nat-
urally enough as to the enmity between men and serpents (for the
serpent always bites about the heel, because it cannot reach high-
er ; and the man always knocks the serpent about the head, as
the most effectual way to prevent its biting ;*) this foolish story,
I say, has been made into a prophecy, a type, and a promise to
begin with ; and the lying imposition of Isaiah to Ahaz, That a
virgin shall conceive and bear a son, as a sign that Ahaz should
conquer, when the event was that he was defeated (as already
noticed in the observations on the book of Isaiah,) has been per-
verted, and made to serve as a winder-up.

Jonah and the whale are also made into a sign or a type. Jonah
is Jesus, and the whale is the grave : for it is said, (and they have
made Christ to say it of himself) Matt. chap. xvii. ver. 40, "For
as Jonah was three days and three iiights in the whale's belly, sa
shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth." But it happens ankwardly enough that Christ, ac-
cording to their own account, was but one day and two nights in
the grave ; about 36 hours, instead of 72 ; that is, the Friday
night, the Saturday, and the Saturday night ; for they say he was
up on the Sunday morning by sun-rise, or before. But as this fits

* " It shall bruise tliy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Gen. ch. iii. ver. 15.

' 140 THE AGE OF REASON.

quite as well as the hile and the kick in Genesis, or the lir^in and
her son in Isaiah, it will pass in the lump of orlhodox things.
Thus mucii lor tlie historical part of the Testament and its evi-
dences.

Ep'isllcs of Paul — The epistles ascrihed to Paul, being fourteen
in number, almost fill up the remaining part of the Testament.
Whether those epistles were written by the person to whom they
are ascribed, is a matter of no great importance, since the writer,
whoever he was, attempts to prove his doctrine by argument. He
does not pretend to have been witness to any of the scenes told of
the resurrection and the ascension ; and he declares that he had
not believed them.

The story of his being struck to the ground as he was journey-
ing to Damascus, has nothing in it miraculous or extraordinary ;
he escaped with his life, and that is more than many others have
done, who have l)een struck with lightning \ and that he should
loose his sight for three days, and be unable to eat or drink during
that time, is nothing more than is common in such conditions. His
companions that were with him appear not to have suffered in the
same manner, for they were well enough to lead him the remain-
der of the journey ; neither did they pretend to have seen any vi-
sion.

The character of the person called Paul, according ta the ac-
counts given of him, has in it a great deal of violence and fanati-
cism ; he had persecuted with as much heat as he preached after-
wards ; the stroke he had received had changed his thinking, with-
out altering his constitution \ and, either as a Jew or a Christian,
he was the same zealot. Such men are never good moral eviden-
ces of any doctrine they preach. They are always in extremes,
as well of action as of belief

The doctrine he sets out to prove by argument, is the resurrec-
tion of the same body: and he advances this as an evidence of im-
mortality. But so much will men differ in their manner of think-
ing, and in the conclusions they draw from the same premises, that
this doctrine of the resurrection of the same body, so far from be-
ing an evidence of immortality, appears to me to furnish an evi-
dence against it ; for if I had already died in this body, and am
raised again in the same body in which I have died, it is presump-
tive evidence that I shall die again. That resvnrection no more
secures me against the repetition of dying, than an ague fit, "when
past, secures me against another. To believe, therefore, in im-
mortality, I must have a more elevated idea tlian is contained in
tlie gloomy doctrine of the resurrection.

Besides, as a matter of choice, as well as of hope, T had rather
have a better body and a more convenient form than the present.
Every animal in the creation excels us in something. The wing-
ed insects, without mentioning doves or eagles, can pass over more
space and with greater case, in a few minutes, than man can in an

THE AGE OF REASOX. I4l

hour. The glide of the smallest fish, in proportion to its hulk, ex-
ceeds us in motion, almost beyond comparison, and without weari-
ness. Even the sluggish snail can ascend from the bottom of a
dungeon, where a man, by the want of that ability, would perish;
and a spider can launch itself from the top, as a playful amusement.
The personal powers of man are so limited, and his heavy frame
so little constructed to extensive enjoyment, that there is nothing
to induce us to wish the opinion of Paul to be true. It is too little
for the magnitude of the scene — too mean for the sublimity of tho
subject.

But all other arguments apart ; the consciousness of exis'ence
is the only conceivable idea we can have of another life, and the
continuance of that consciousness is immortality. The conscious-
ness of existence, or the knowing that we exist, is not necessarily
confined to the same form, nor to the same matter, even in this
life.

We have not in all cases the same form, nor in any case the same
matter, that composed our bodies twenty or thirty years ago ; and
yet we are conscious of being the same persons. Even legs and
arms, which make up almost half the human frame, are not neces-
sary to the consciousness of existence. These may be lost or
taken away, and the full consciousness of existence remain ; and
were their place supplied by wings or other appendages, we can-
not conceive that it could alter our consciousness of existence.
In short, we know not how much, or rather how little, of our com-
position it is, and hov/ exquisitely fine that little is, that creates in
us this consciousness of existence ; and all beyond that is like the
pulp of a peach, distinct and separate from the vegetative speck
in the kernel.

Who can say by what exceeding fine action of fine matter it is
that a thought is produced in what we call the mind? and yet that
thought, when produced, as I now produce the thought I am writ-
ing, is capable of becoming immortal, and is the only production
of man that has that capacity.

Statues of brass or marble will perish ; and statues made in im-
itation of them are not the same statues, nor the same workman-
ship, any more than the copy of a picture is the same picture. But
print and reprint a thought a thousand times over, and that with
materials of any kind — carve it in wood, or engrave it on stone,
the thought is eternally and identically the same thought in every
case. It has a capacity of unimpaired existence, unaffected by
change of matter, and is essentially distinct, and of a nature difTer-
ent from every thing else that we know or can conceive. If then
.he thing produced has in itself a capacity of being immortal, it is
more than a token that the power tliat produced it, which is the
self-same thing us consciousness of existence, can be immortal al-
so ; and that as independently of the matter it was first connected
with, as the thought is of the printing or writing it first appeared in.

V

142 THE AGE OF REASON.

The one idea is not more difficult to believe than the other, and we
can see that one is true.

That the conscio'asness of existence is not dependent on the
stiBfie form or the same matter, is demonstrated to our senses in the
works of the creation, as far as our senses are capable of receiving
that demonstration. A very numerous part of the animal creation
preaches to us, far better than Paul, the belief of a life hereafter.
Their little life resembles an earth and a heaven — a present and a
future state : and comprises, if it may be so expressed, immortal-
ity in miniature.

The most beautiful parts of the creation to our eye are the
winged insects, and they are not so originally. They acquire that
form and that inimitable brilliancy by progressive changes. The
slow and creeping caterpillar-worm of to-day, passes in a few days
to a torpid figure, and a state resembling death ; and in the ne^t
change comes forth in all the miniature magnificence of life a
splendid butterfly. No resemblance of the former creature re-
mains ; every thing is changed ; all his powers are new, and life
is to him another thing. We cannot conceive that the conscious-
ness of existence is not the same in this state of the animal as be-
fore ; why then must I believe that the resurrection of the same
body is necessary to continue to me the consciousness of existence
hereafter.

In the former part of the ^ge of Reason, I have called the cre-
ation the only true and real word of God ; and this instance, of this
text, in the book of creation, not only shows to us that this thing
may be so, but that it is so ; and that the belief of a future state is
a rational belief, founded upon facts visible in the creation : for it
is not more difficult to believe that we shall exist hereafter in a
better state and form than at present, than that a worm should be-
come a butterfly, and quit the dunghill for the atmosphere, if we
did not know it as a fact.

As to the doubtful jargon ascribed to Paul in the 15th chapter
of 1 Corinthians, which makes part of the burial service of some
Christian sectaries, it is as destitute of meaning as the tolling of
the bell at the funeral ; it explains nothing to tlic understanding —
it illustrates nothing to the imagination, but leaves the reader to
find any meaning if he can. "All flesh (says he) is not the same
flesh. There is one flesh of men ; anotlier of beasts ; another of
fishes; and another of birds." And what then? — nothing. A
cook could have said as much. "There arc also (says he) I)odie3
cclceti.i! fxud bodies terrestrial ; tiie glory of the celestial is one,
and the glory of the terrestrial is another." And what then.^ —
nothing. And wliat is the diircroiu-o? notliiiig tliat he has told.
"Thtr«i is (sayshe) one glory oi'tlicsun, and another glory nf the
moon, and another glory of the stars." And what then? — noth-
ing ; except that lie says that one star (Ji(frillifrnm (mother slar in
glory, instead of distance ; and he miglit as well have told us^ that

THE AGE OF REASOX. ■ 143

the moon did not shine so bright as the sun. All this is nothing
better than the jargon of a conjuror, who picks up phrases he does
not understand, to confound the credulous people who come to have
their fortunes told. Priests and conjurors are of the same trade.

Sometimes Paul affects to be a naturalist, and to prove his sys-
tem of resurrection from the principles of vegetation. "Thou
fool, (says he) that which thou sowest is not quickened except it
die." To which one might reply in his own language, and say,
Thou fool, Paul, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it
die not; for the grkin that dies in the ground never does, nor can
vegetate. It is only the living grains that produce the next crop.
But the metaphor, in any point of view, is no simile. It is suc-
cession, and not resurrection.

The progress of an animal from one state of being to another,
as from a worm to a liutterlly, applies to the case ; but this of a
grain does not, and shows Paul to have been what he says of oth-
ers, a fool.

Whether the fourteen epistles ascribed to Paul were written by
him or not, is a matter of indiflcrence : they are either argumenta-
tive or dogmatical; and as the argument is defective, and the dog-
matical part is merely presumptive, it signifies not who wrote them.
And the same may be said for the remaining parts of the Testa-
ment. It is not upon the epistles, but upon what is called the gos-
pel, contained in the four books ascribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John, and upon the pretended prophecies, that the theory of
the church, calling itself the Christian church, is founded. The
epistles are dependent upon those, and must follow their fate; for
if the story of Jesus Christ be fabulous, all reasoning founded upon
it as a supposed truth, must fall with it.

We know from history, that one of the principal leaders of this
church, Athanasius, lived at the time the New Testament was
formed ;* and we know also, from the absurd jargon he has left
us under the name of a creed, the character of the men who
formed the New Testament ; and we know also from the same
history, that the authenticity of the books of which it is compos-
ed was denied at the time. It was upon the vote of such as
Athanasius, that the Testament was decreed to be the word of
God ; and nothing can present to us a more strange idea than
that of decreeing the word of God by vote. Those who rest
their faith upon such authority, put man in the place of God, and
have no foundation for future hi^piness ; credulity, however, is
not a crime ; but it becomes criminal by resisting conviction. It
is stranffling: in the womb of the conscience the elTorts it makes
to ascertain truth. We should never force belief upon ourselves
in any thing.

I here close the subject on the Old Testament and the New.

• AUmnasius died, according to the church chronology, in the year 371.

144 THE AGE OF REASOX.

The evidence I have produced to prove them forgeries, is ex-
tracted from the books themselves, and acts, like a two edged
sword, either way. If the evidence be denied, the authenticity
of the scriptures is denied with it ; for it is scripture evidence :
and if the evidence be admitted, the authenticity of the books is
disproved. T!ic contradictory impossibilities contained in the Old
Testament and the New, put them in the case of a man who
swears for and against. Either evidence convicts him of perjury,
and equally destroys reputation.

Sliould the Bible and Testament hereafter fall, it is not I that
have been the occasion. I have done no more than extracted
the evidence from the confused mass of ni<ti.3." with which it is
mixed, and arranged that evidence in a point of li«^ht to be clear-
ly seen and easily comprehended : and having done this, I leave
the reader to judge for himself, as I have judged for myself.

CONCLUSION.

In the former part of the Jl<^c of Reason, I have spoken of the
three frauds, m^/.s/er?/, miracle, and prophecy ; and as 1 have seen
nothing in any of the answers to that work, that in the least af-
fects what I have there said upon those subjects, I shall not en-
cumber this Second Part with additions that are not necessary.

I have spoken also in the same work upon what is called reve-
lalion, and have shown the absuril misapplication of that term to
the books of the Old Testament and the New ; for certainly rev-
elation is out of the question in reciting any thing of which man
has been the actor, or t!ie witness. That which a man has done
or seen, needs no revelation to tell him he has done it, or seen
't ; for he knows it already ; nor to enable him to tell it, or to
.vrite it. It is ignorance, or imposition, to apply tlie term reve-
lation in such cases ; yet the liihle and Testament are classed
under this fraudulent descrii)ti()n of being nW rervlulhm.

Revelation then, so far as the term has relation between God
and man, can only be applied to somofhiug wliifh Cod reveals of
his le'ill to man ; but though the power ot"tlie Ahuiglity to make
such a communication, is necessarily admitted, because to that
power all things are possil)le, yet, the thing so revealed (if any
thing ever was revealed, and wliich, by the bye, it is impossible
to prove) is revelation to the person onhj to irhom it is made. His
account of it to another is not revelation ; and whoever puts faith
in that account, puts it in the man from whom Ihe account comes ;
and tiiat man may have been deceived, or mav have dreamed it ;
or he may be an impostor, and may lie. There is no possible
criterion wherf>by to judge of thetrufh of what lie trils ; for even
the morality of it would bo no proof of revelation. In all such cases,
the proDCr answer would be, " When it is revealed to mCy I ivill

THE AGE OF REASON 145

l/elleve tl to be a revelation ; but it is not, ami cannot be incnmbent
upon «ie to believe it to be revelation before ; neither is it j>ropcv that 1
stwuld take the iDord of a man as the word of God, and put man in
the place of God^ This is the manner in which I have spoken of
revelation in the former part of the Jlge of Reason ; and which,
while it reverentially admits levelation as a possible thing, be-
cause, as before said, to the Almighty all things are possible, it
prevents the imposition of one man upon another, and precludes
the wicked use of pretended revelation.

But though, speaking for myself, I thus admit the possibility of
revelation, I totally disbelieve that the Almighty ever did commu-
nicate any thing to man, by any mode of speech, in any language,
or by any kind of vision, or appearance, or by any means which
our senses are capable of receiving, otherwise than by the uni-
versal display of himself in the works of the creation, and by that
repugnance we feel in ourselves to bad actions, and disposition
to good (.mes.

The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and
the greatest miseries, that have afflicted the human race, have
had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed re-
ligion. It has been the most dishonourable belief against the
character of the Divinity, the most destructive to morality, and the
peace and happiness of man, that ever was propagated since man
began to exist. It is better, far better, that we admitted, if it
were possible, a thousand devils to roam at large, and to preach
publicly the doctrine of devils, if there were any such, than that
we permitted one such impostor and monster as Moses, Joshua,
Samuel, and the Bible prophets, to come with the pretended word
of God in his mouth, and have credit among us.

Whence arose all the horrid assassinations of whole nations of
men, women, and infants, with which the Bible is filled ; and the
bloody persecutions, and tortures unto death, and religious wars,
that since that time have laid Europe in blood and ashes ;
whence arose they, but from this impious thing called revealed
religion, and this monstrous belief, that God has spoken to man .''
The lies of the Bible have been the cause of the one, and the
lies of the Testament of the other.

Some Christians pretend, that Christianity was not established
by the sword ; but of what period of time do they speak ? It
was impossible that twelve men could begin with the sword ;
they had not the power ; but no sooner were the professors of
Christianity sufficiently powerful to employ the sword, than they
did so, and the stake and the faggot too ; and Mahomet could
not do it sooner. By the same spirit that Peter cut off the ear
of the high priest's servant (if the story be true) he would have
cut off his head, and the head of his master, had he been able.
Besides this, Christianity grounds itself originally upon the Bi-
ble, and the Bible was established altogether by the sword, and

13

14G THE AGE OF REASON.

that in the worst use of it ; not to terrify, but to cxtirpa'e. The
Jews made no converts ; they butchered all. The Bible is f.'^e
sire of the Te.'r^ament, and both are called the word of God.
The Christians read both books ; the ministers preach from
both books ; and this thing called Christianity is made up of
both. It is then false to say that Christianity was not establish-
ed by the sword.

The only sect that has not persecuted are the Quakers ; and
the only reason that can be given for it is, that they are rather
Deists than Christians. They do not believe much about Jesus
Christ, and they call the Scriptures a dead letter. Had they
called them by a worse name, they had been nearer the trutli.

It is incumbent on every man who reverences the character ol
the Creator, and who wishes to lessen the catalogue of artificial
miseries, and remove the cause that has sown persecutions thick
among mankind, to expel all ideas of revealed religion as a dan-
gerous heresy, and an impious fraud. What is it that we have
learned tlom this pretended thing called revealed religion ^ no-
thing that is useful to man, and every thing that is dishonourable
to his Maker. What is it the Bible teaches us ? — rapine, cruel-
ty, and murder. What is it the Testament teaches us .' — to be-
lieve that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman,
engaged to be married ! and the belief of this debauchery is call-
ed faith.

As to the fragments of morality that are irregularly and thinly
scattered in those books, they make no part of this pretended
thing revealed religion. They are the natural dictates of con-
science, and the bonds by which society is held together, and
without which, it cannot' exist ; and are nearly the same in all
religions, and in all societies. The Testament teaches nothin"'
new upon this subject, and where it attempts to exceed, it be-
comes mean and ridiculous. The doctrine of not retaliatinjr in-
juries, IS much better expressed in proverbs, which is a collec-
tion as well from the Gentiles as the Jews, than it is in the Tes-
tament. It is there said. Proverbs xxv. ver. 21, " If thine enemy
be hnngrji, fy^ive him bread to cat ; and if he be thirsty, s;ive him
water to driid' :"* but when it is said, as in the Testament, " If

* According to what is called Clirist's .wrmon on the mount, in the book of Matthew,
where, arnon^ some otiier good tilings, a grrat deal of tJiis feigned morality is intro-
duced, it is there exprcsfly said, that tlic doctrine of f<>rl)c:irance, or of not retaliating
injuries, wnt not any part of the doctrine of the Je\os ; Init as this doctrine ia
founded in provcihs, it must, according to that statement, have been copied (iom the
<icntiles, from whom Christ had learned it. lliose men, whom Jewish and Chris-
tiaJi idolalors Xvaw. abii.-'ively called heathens, had much lx:tter and clearer ideas of
justice and morality than are to Ix; found in tl»c Old Testament, so far aa it is Jewish ;
or in the .^l•w. Tli<; answer ttf Solon on the question, " Which is the most perfect
popiil.ir government," has never l)een excee<led by anv man since his time, as con
laining a in:i\im of pr.litical morality. "That," nays lie, " where the least injury
done to the jneanr.tt individual, in considered as an insult on the tohole con$titit-
tiou." Solon liiid uhuMi 500 veu.!.s before Vlnhi

THE AGE OF REASON. 147

a man smite thee on the ri^ht check, turn to him the other also ;" it
is assassinating the dignity of forbearance, and sinking man into
a spaniel.

Loving enemies, is another dogma of feigned morality, and hag
besides no meaning. It is incuml)ent on man, ;fc a moralist, that
he does not revenge an injury ; and it is equally as good in a
political sense, for there is no end to retaUation, each retaliates
on the other, and calls it justice ; but to love in proportion to the
injury, if it could be done, would be to ofler a premium for crime.
Besides, the word enemies is too vague and general to be used
in a moral maxim, which ought always to be clear and defined,
like a proverb. If a man be the enemy of another from mistake
and prejudice, as in the case of religious opinions, and sometimes
in politics, that man is diflerent to an enemy at heart with a crim-
inal intention ; and it is incumbent upon us, and it contributes
also to our tranquillity, that we put the best construction upon a
thing that it will bear. But even this erroneous motive in him,
makes no motive for love on the other part ; and to say that we
can love voluntarily, and without a motive, is morally and phy-
sically impossible.

Morality is injured by prescribing to it duties, that, in the first
place, are impossible to be performed ; and, if they could be,
would be productive of evil ; or, as before said, be premiums for
crime. The maxim cf doing as ire mould be done luito, does not
include this strange doctrine of loving enemies ; for no man ex-
pects to be loved himself for his crime or for his enmity.

Those who preach this doctrine of loving their enemies, are in
general the greatest persecutors, and they act consistently by so
doing ; for the doctrine is hypocritical, and it is natural that hy-
pocrisy should act the reverse of what it preaches. For my own
part, I disown the doctrine, and consider it as feigned or a fabulous
morality ; yet the man does not exist that can say I have per-
secuted him, or any man, or any set of men, either in the Ameri-
can Revolution, or in the French Revolution ; or that I have, in
any case, returned evil for evil. But it is not incumbent on man
to reward a bad action with a good one, or to return good for
evil ; and wherever it is done, it is a voluntary act, and not a
duty. It is also absurd to suppose that such doctrine can make
any part of a revealed religion. We imitate the moral charac-
ter of the Creator by forbearing with each other, for he forbears
with all ; but this doctrine would imply that he loved man, not
in proportion as he was good, but as he was bad.

If we consider the nature of our condition here, we must see
there is no occasion for such a thing as revealed religion. What
is it we want to know ? Does not the creation, the universe we
behold, preach to us the existence of an Almighty power that
governs and regulates the whole ? And is not the evidence that
this creation holds out to our senses infinitely stronger than any

148 THE AGE OF UEASON.

thing we can read in a book, that any impostor might make and
call the word of God ? As for morality, the knowledge of it ex-
ists in every man's conscience.

Here we are. The existence of an Almighty power is suffi-
ciently demonstrated to us, though we cannot conceive, as it is
impossible we should, the nature and manner of its existence.
We cannot conceive how we came here ourselves, and yet we
know for a fact that we are here. We must know, also, that the
power that called us into being, can, if he please, and when he
pleases, call us to account for the manner in which we have liv-
ed here ; and, therefore, without seeking any other motive for
the behef, it is rational to believe that he will, for we know be-
fore-hand that he can. The probability, or even possibility of the
thing is all that we ought to know ; for if we knew it as a fact,
we should be the mere slaves of terror ; our belief would have
no merit ; and our best actions no virtue.

Deism then teaches us, without the possibility of being de-
ceived, all that is necessary or proper to be known. The cre-
ation is the Bible of the Deist. He there reads, in the hand-
writing of the Creator himself, the certainty of his existence, and
the immutability of his power, and all other Bibles and Testa-
ments are to him forgeries. The probability that we may be
called to account hereafter, will, to a reflecting mind, have
the influence of belief ; for it is not our belief or disbelief that can
make or unmake the fact. As this is the state we are in, and
which it is proper we should be in, as free agents, it is the fool
only, and not the philosopher, or even the prudent man, that
would live as if there were no God.

But the belief of a God is so weakened by being mixed with
the strange fable of the Christian creed, and with the wild ad-
ventures related in the Bible, and of the obscurity and obscene
nonsense of the Testament, that the mind of man is bewildered
as in a fog. Viewing all these tbings in a confused mass, he
confounds fact with fable ; and as he cannot believe all, he feels
a disposition to reject all. But (he belief of a God is a belief
distinct from all otiicr things, and ought not to be confounded
with any. The notion of a Trinity of Gods has enfeebled the
belief of one God. A nuihiplication of beliefs acts as a division of
belief; and in pvxaportion as any thing is divided it is weakened.
Religion, by such means, becomes a thing of form, instead of
fact ; of notion instead of principles ; morality is banished to
make room for an imaginary thing, called faith, and this faith has
its origin in a supj)osed debauchery ; a man is preached instead
of God ; and execution is an object for gratitude ; the preachers
daub tln'iMS('h OS with the blood, like a troop of assassins, and pre-
tend to admire tlie brilliancy it gives them ; they preach a hum-
dpum sermon on the merits of the execution ; then praise Jesus
Christ for being executed, and condemn the Jews for doing it.

THE AGE OP REASON. 149

A man, by hearing all this nonsense lumped and preached to-
gether, confounds the God of creation with the imagined God of
Christians, and lives as if there were none.

Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is
none more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man,
more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory in itself, than
this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impos-
sible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice, it renders the
heart torpid, or produces only atheists and fanatics. As an en-
gine of power, it serves the purpose of despotism ; and as a
means of weahh, the avarice of priests ; but so far as respects
the good of man in general, it leads to nothing here or hereafter.

The only religion that has not been invented, and that has in
it every evidence of divine originality, is pure and simple Deism.
It must have been the first, and will probably be the last that man
believes. But pure and simple Deism does not answer the pur-
pose of despotic governments. They cannot lay hold of religion
as an engine, but by mixing it with human inventions, and making
their own authority a part ; neither does it answer the avarice of
priests, but by incorporating themselves and their functions with
it, and becoming, like the government, a party in the system.
It is this that forms the otherwise mysterious connection of church
and state ; the church humane, and the state tyrannic.

Were man impressed as fully and as strongly as he ought to be,
with the belief of a God, his moral life would be regulated by the
force of that belief; he would stand in awe of God, and of him-
self, and would not do the thing that could not be concealed from
either. To give this belief the full opportunity of force, it is
necessary that it acts alone. This is Deism.

But when, according to the Christian trinitarian scheme, one
part of God is represented by a dying man, and another part called
the Holy Ghost, by a flying pigeon, it is impossible that belief can
attach itself to such wild conceits.*

It has been the scheme of the Christian church, and of all the
other invented systems of religion, to hold man in ignorance of
the Creator, as it is of government to hold man in ignorance of his
rights. The systems of the one are as false as those of the other,
and are calculated for mutual support. The study of theology,
as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing ; it is
founded on nothing ; it rests on no principles ; it proceeds by no
authorities ; it has no data ; it can demonstrate nothing ; and it
admits of no conclusion. Not any thing can be studied as a sci-
ence, without our being in possession of the principles upon which

*The book called the book of Matthew, says,ch. iii. ver. 16, that the Holy Ghost
descended in the shape of a dove. It might as well have said a goose ; tlie creatures
are equally harmless, and.the one is as much a nonsensical lie as the other. The se-
cond of Acts, ver. 2, 3, says, that it descended in a mighty rushing wind, in the shape
of cloven tongues : perhaps it was cloven feet. Such absurd stuff ia only fit for talei
of witches and wizards.

150 THE AGE OF REASON.

it is founded ; and as this is not the case with Christian theology,
it is therefore the study of nothing.

Instead then of studying theology, as is now done, out of the
Bible and Testament, the meanings of which books are always
controverted, and the authenticity of which is disproved, it is ne-
cessary that we refer to the Bible of the creation. The princi-
ples we discover there are eternal, and of divine origin : thoy are
the foundation of all the science that exists in the world, and must
be the foundation of theology.

We can know God only through his works. We cannot have
a conception of any one attribute, but by following some principle
that leads to it. We have only a confused idea of his power, if
we have not the means of comprehending something of its im-
mensity. We can have no idea of his wisdom, but by knowing
the order and manner in which it acts. The principles of science
lead to this knowledge ; for the Creator of man is the Creator of
science, and it is through that medium that man can see God, as
it were, face to face.

Could a man be placed m a situation, and endowed with the
power of vision, to behold at one-^iew, and to contemplate delib-
erately, the structure of the universe ; to mark the movements of
the several planets, the cause of their varying appearances, the
unerring order in which they revolve, even to the remotest comet ;
their connections and dependence on each other, and to know the
system of laws established by the Creator, that governs and reg-
ulates the whole ; he would then conceive, far beyond what any
church theology can teach him, the power, the wisdom, the vast-
ness, the munificence of the Creator ; he would then see, that all
the knowledge man has of science, and that all the mechanical
arts by which he renders his situation comfortable here, are de-
rived 0-om that source : his mind, exalted by the scene, and con-
vinced by the fact, would increase in gratitude as it increased in
knowledge ; his religion or his worship would become united with
his improvement as a man ; any employment he followed, that
had connection with the principles of the creation, as every thing
of agriculture, of science, and of the mechanical arts, has, would
teach him more of God, and of the gratitude he owes to him, than
any theological Christian sermon lie now hears. Great objects
inspire great thoughts ; great munificence excites groat gratitude ;
but the grovelling tales and doctrines of the Bible and tlie Testa-
ment are fit only to excite contempt.

Though man cannot arrive, at least in this life, at the actual
scene I have described, ho can dcnionstrafo it ; l)ecause he lias a
knowlodgc of the principles upon which the <-reation is construct-
ed. We know that the greatest works can be represented in
model, and that tlie universe can bo represented by the same
means. Tlie same principles by which we measure an inch, or
an acre of groimd, will measure to millions in extent. A circle

THE AGE OF REASON. 151

of an inch diameter has the same geometrical properties as a cir-
cle that would circumscribe the universe. The same properties
of a triangle that will demonstrate upon paper the course of a
ship, will do it on the ocean ; and when applied to what are call-
ed the heavenly bodies, will ascertain to a minute the time of an
eclipse, though these bodies are millions of miles distant from us.
This knowledge is of divine origin ; and it is from the Bible of
the creation that man has learned it, and not from the stupid Bi-
ble of the church, that teacheth man nothing.*

All the knowledge man has of science and of machinery, by the
aid of which his existence is rendered comfortable upon earth, and
without which he would be scarcely distinguishable in appearance
and condition from a common animal, comes from the great ma-
chine and structure of the universe. The constant and unweari-
ed observations of our ancestors upon the movements and revolu-
tions ofthe heavenly bodies, in what are supposed to have been
the early ages ofthe world, have brought this knowledge upon
earth. It is not IVIoses and the prophets, nor Jesus Christ, nor
his apostles, that have done it. The Almighty is the great me-
chanic ofthe creation ; tlie first philosopher and original teacher
of all science : — Let us then learn to reverence our master, and
not let us forget the labours of our ancestors.

Had we at this day no knowledge of machinery, and were it
possible that man could have a view, as I have before described,
ofthe structure and machinery ofthe universe, he would soon con-
ceive the idea of constructing some at least ofthe mechanical
works we now have ; and the idea so conceived would progress-
ively advance in practice. Or could a model ofthe universe, such
as is called an orrery, be presented before him and put in motion,
his mind would arrive at the same idea. Such an object and such
a subject would, whilst it improved him in knowledge useful to
himself as a man and a member of society, as well as entertain-
ing, afford far better matter for impressing him with a knowledge
of, and a belief in the Creator, and ofthe reverence and gratitude
that man owes to him, than the stupid texts of the Bible and the
Testament from which, be the talents ofthe preacher what they

* The Bible-makers have undertaken to give us, in the (ii-st chapter of Genesis, an
account of tlie creation ; anrl in doing tliis, tliey have demonstrated nothing but their
Ignorance. Tliey make there to have been three days and tliree nigiits, evenings and
mornings, before there w.is a sun ; when it is tiie presence or absence of tlie sun that is
the cause of day and night — and what is called his rising and setting, that of morning
and evening. Besides, it is a puerile and pitilnl idea, to suppose the Almighty to say,
" Let there be light." It is tlie imperative manner of speaking that a conjuror uses,
when he says to his cups and balls, Presto, be gone — and must probably has been taken
from it, as Moses and his rod are a conjuror and his wan 1. Loiis;inus calls this ex-
pression the sublime ; and hv tlit •'nine ride the conjuror is sublime too; for the man-
ner of speaking is exprcpsivelv and graiiiinaticallv the same. When authors and crit
ics talk ofthe subliriio, they see not liow nearly it lx)rders on the ri;licul;jus. The s;;b
lime of (he critics, like some parts of Edmund Burke's sublime ami beautiful, is like a
wind-mill just visible in a fog, which imagiiration might distort into a flying niountdin,
or an archangel, or a dock of wild geese.

152 THE AGE OF REASON.

may, only stupid sermons can be preached. If man must preach,
let him preach something that is edifying, and from texts that are
known to be true.

The Bible of the creation is inexhaustible in texts. Every part
of science, whether connected \fith the geometry of the universe,
with the systems of animal and vegetable life, or with the proper-
ties of inanimate matter, is a text as well for devotion as for phi-
losophy— for gratitude as for human improvement. It will, per-
liaps, be said, that if such a revolution in the system of religion
takes [)lace, every preaclicr ought to be a philosopher.- —Jyjost cer~
luinlii ; and every house of devotion a scliool of science.

It has been by wandering from the immutable laws of science,
and the right use of reason, and setting up an invented thing call-
ed revealed religion, that so many wild and blasphemous conceits
have been formed of the Almighty. The Jews have made him
the assassin of the human species, to make room for the religion of
the Jews. The Christians have made him the murderer of him-
self, and the founder of a new religion, to supersede and expel the
Jewish religion. And to find pretence and admission for tliese
things, tliey must luive supposed his power or his wisdom imper-
fect, or his will changeable ; and the changeableness of the will
is the imperfection of the judgment. The philosopher knows that
the laws of the Creator have never changed with respect either to
the principles of science, or the properties of matter. Why then
is it to be supposed they have changed with respect to man ?

I here close the subject. I have shown in all the f )rgoing
parts of tliis work, that the Bible and Testament are impositions
and tbrgeries ; and I leave the evidence I have produced in proof
of it to be refuted, if any one can do it : and I leave the ideas that
are su^sested in the conclusion o-f the work, to rest on the mind
of the reader ; certain as I am, that when opinions are free, ei-
ther in matters of government or religion, truth will finally and
powerfully prevail

E.ND OF THE AGE OF REASOX SLCO.VD PART.

m,mi'^mm I

BEING

AN ANSWER TO A FRIEND,

ON THE PUBLICATION OF

THE AGE OF REASOJ^.

Paris, May 12, 1797
IN your letter of the 20th of March, you give me several quo-
tations from the Bible, which you call the word of God, to show
me that my opinions on religion are wrong ; and I could give you
as many, from the same book, to show that yours are not ri^ht ;
consequently, then, the Bible decides nothing, because it decides
any way, and every way, one chooses to make it.

But, by what authority do you call the Bible the word of Godl
for this is the first point to be settled. It is not your calling it so
that makes it so, any more than the Mahometans calling the Koran
the ivord of God makes the Koran to be so. The Popish Councils
of Nice and Laodicea, about 350 years after the time that the per-
son called Jesus Christ is said to have lived, voted the books, that
now compose what is called the New Testament, to be the ivord
of God. This was done by yeas and nays, as we now vote a law
The Pharisees of the second Temple, after the Jews returned
froiji captivity in Babylon, did the same by the books that now
compose the Old Testament, and this is all the authority there is,
wJiich to me is no authority at all. I am as capable of judging for
myself as they were, and I think more so, because, as they made a
living by their religion, they had a self-interest in the vote they

gave.

You may have an opinion that a man is inspired, but you can-
not prove it, nor you cannot have any proof of it yourself, because
you cannot see into his mind in order to know how he comes by
his thoughts, and the same is the case with the word revelation. —
There can be no evidence of such a thing, for you can no more
prove revelation, than you can prove what another man dreams of,
neither can he p"ove it himself.

154 LETTER TO A FRIEND.

It is often said in the Bible that God spake unto Moses ; but
how do you know that God spake unto Moses? Because, you will
say, the Bible says so. The Koran says, that God spake unto
Mahomet ; do you believe that too? No. Why not? Because, you
will say, you do not believe it ; and so, because you do, and be-
cause you don^t, is all the reason you can give for believing or dis-
believing, except that you will say that Mahomet was an impostor.
And how do you know that Moses was not an impostor? For my
own part, I believe that all are impostors who pretend to hold ver-
bal communication with the Deity. It is the way by which the
world has been imposed upon ; but if you think otherwise you have
the same right to your opinion that I have to mine, and must an-
swer for it in the same manner. But all this does not settle the point,
whether the Bible be the word of God, or not. It is therefore ne-
cessary to go a step further. The case then is : —

You form your opinion of God from the account given of him in
the Bible ; and I form my opinion of the Bible from the wisdom
and goodness of God, manifested in the structure of the universe,
and in all the works of the Creation. The result in these two cri-
ses will be, that you, by taking the Bible for your standard, will
have a bad opinion of God ; and I, by taking God for my standard,
shall have a bad opinion of the Bible.

The Bible represents God to be a changeable, passionate, vin-
dictive beinir : making a world, and then drownino- it, afterwards
repenting of what he had done, and promising not to do so again.
Setting one nation to cut the throats of another, and stopping the
course of the sun tUl the butchery should be done. But the works
of God in the creation preach to us another doctrine. In that vast
volume we see nothing to give us the idea of a changeable, pas-
sionate, vindictive God ; every thing we there behold impresses
us with a contrary idea; that of imchangeablenessand of eternal
order, harmony, and goodness. The sun and the seasons return
at their appointed time, and every thing in the Creation proclaims
vhat God is unchangeable. Now, which am I to believe, a book
that any impostor may make and call the 7Vord of God, or the Cre-
ation itself, which none but an Almighty Power could make, for the
Bible says one thing, and tlie Creation says the contrary. The
Bible represents God with all the passions of a mortal, and the
Creation proclaims him with all the attributes of a God.

It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and
murder ; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man. That
blood-thirsty man, called the prophet Samuel, makes God to suy,
(1 Sam. ch. xv. ver. 3,) "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly
destroy all tliat they have, and spare llicm not, bid slaij both iv.an
and HOHi«H, i)f(inl and sjickling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.''^

That Samuel, or some other impostor, might say this, is what,
at this distance of time, can neither be proved nor disproved ; but
in my ojiinion, it is blaspliemy to say, or to believe, that God said

LETTER TO A FUIEND. 155

it. All our ideas of the justice and goodness of God revolt at the
impious cruelty of the Bible. It is not a God, just and good, but
a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes.

What makes this pretended order to destroy the Amalekites ap-
pear the worse, is the reason given for it. The Amalekites, four
hundred years before, according to the account in Exodous, chap.
17, (but which has the appearance of fable from the magical ac-
count it gives of Moses holding up his hands) had opposed the Is-
raelites coming into their country ; and this the Amalekites had a
right to do, because the Israelites were the invaders, as the Span-
iards were the invaders of Mexico ; and this opposition by the A-
malekites, at that time, is given as a reason, that the men, women,
infants and sucklings, sheep and oxen, camels and asses, that were
born four hundred years afterwards, should be put to death ; and
to complete the horror, Samuel hewed Agag, the chief of the A-
malekites in pieces, as you would hew a stick of wood. I will be-
stow a few observations on this case.

In the first place, nobody knows who the author, or writer of
the book of Samuel was, and therefore the fact itself has no other
proof than anonymous or hearsay evidence, which is no evidence
at all. In the second place, this anonymous book says, that this
slaughter was done by the express command of God : but all our
ideas of the justice and goodness of God give the lie to the book,
and I never will believe any book that ascribes cruelty and injus-
tice to God. I therefore reject the Bible as unworthy of credit.

As I have now given you my reasons for believing that the Bi-
ble is not the word of God, and that it is a falsehood, I have a righ.
to ask you your reasons for believing the contrary ; but I know
you can give me none, except that you ivere educated to believe the
Bible ; and as the Turks give the same reasons for believing the
Koran, it is evident that education makes all the difference, and
that reason and truth have nothing to do in the case. You believe
in the Bible from the accident of birth, and the Turks believe in
the Koran from the same accident, and each calls the other infi-
del.— But leaving the prejudice of education out of the case, the
unprejudiced truth is, that all are infidels who believe falsely of
God, whether they draw their creed from the Bible, or from the
Koran, from the Old Testament or from the New.

When you have examined the Bible with the attention that I
have done (for I do not think jou know much about it) and permit
yourself to have just ideas of God, you will most probably believe
OS I do. But I wish you to know that this answer to your letter is
Hot written for the purpose of changing your opinion. It is written
to satisfy you, and some other friends whom I esteem, that my
disbelief of the Bible is founded on a pure and religious belief in
God ; for in my opinion, the Bible is a gross libel against the jus-
tice and goodness of God, in almost everv part of it.

"THOMAS PAINE.

LETTER

TO THE HON. T. ERSEINL

ON THE PROSECUTION OF THOMAS WILLIAMS,

FOE PUBLISHING

THE AGE or REASOir

INTRODUCTION.

It is a matter of surprise to some people to see Mr. Erskine
act as counsel for a crown prosecution commenced against the
right of opinion : I confess it is none to me, notwithstanding all
that Mr. Erskine has said before ; for it is difficult to know
when a lawyer is to be believed ; I have always observed that
Mr. Erskine, when contending as a counsel for the right of po-
litical opinion, fiequcntly took occasions, and those often dragged
in head and shoulders, to lard, wbat he called the British Con-
.stitution, with a great deal of praise. Tet the same IMr. Ersk-
i:ie said to me in conversation, were Government to begin de
novo in England, they never would establish such a damned ab-
surdity (it was exactly his expression) as this is. Ought I then
o be surprised at Mr. Erskine for inconsistency ?

In this prosecution Mr. Erskine admits the right of controver-
sy ; bu*. says the Christian religion is not to be abused. This is
.<^omewhat sophistical, because, while he admits the right of con-
troversy, he reserves the right of calling that controversy, abuse :
and thus, lawyer-like, undoes by one word, what he says in the
other. I will, however, in this letter keep within the limits he
prescribes ; he will find here nothing about the Christian reli-
gion : he will find only a statement of" a few cases, which shows
the necessity of examining the books, handed to us from the
Jews, in order to discovei if we have not been imposed upon ;
together with some observations on the manner in which the trial
of Williams has been conducted. If Mr. Erskine denies the
right of examining those books, he had better profess himself at
once an advocate for the establishment of an Inquisition, and the
rc-estabiishment of the Stai* Chamber.

THOMAS PAINE.

LETTER,* &c.

Of all the tyrannies that afflict mankind, tyranny in religion is
the worst : Every other species of tyranny is limited to the
world we live in ; but this attempts a stride beyond the grave,
and seeks to pursue us into eternity. It is there and not here—
it is to God and not to man — it is to a heavenly and not to an
earthly tribunal that we are to account for our belief; if then we
believe falsely and dishonourably of the Creator, and that belief
is forced upon us, as far as force can operate by human laws and
human tribunals, — on whom is the criminality of that belief to
fail ? on those who impose it, or on those on whom it is imposed ?

A bookseller of the name of Williams, has been prosecuted yi
London on a charge of blasphemy, for publishing a book intitled
the Age of Reason. Blasphemy is a word of vast sound, but
equivocal and almost indefinite signification, unless we confine
it to the simple idea of hurting or injuring the reputation of any
one, which was its original meaning. As a word, it existed be-
fore Christianity existed, being a Greek word, or Greek anglofi-
ed, as all the etymological dictionaries will show.

But behold how various and contradictory has been the signi-
fication and application of this equivocal word. Socrates, who
lived more than four hundred yeacs before the Christian era,
was convicted of blasphemy, for preaching against the belief of a
plurality of gods, and for preaching the belief of one god, and
was condemed to suffer death by poison. Jesus Christ was con-
victed of blasphemy under the Jewish law, and was crucified.
Calling Mahomet an impostor would be blasphemy in Turkey ;
and denying the infallibility of the Pope and the Church would
be blasphemy at Rome. What then is to be understood by this
word blasphemy ? We see that in the case of Socrates truth
was condemed as blasphemy. Are we sure that truth is not
blasphemy in the present day ? Wo, however, be to those who
make it so, whoever they may be.

* Mr. Paine lias evidently incorporated into this Letter a portion of liSs answer to
Bishop Watson's " Apology for tlie Bible ;" as in a subsequent chapter of that work,
treating of the book of Genesis, he expressly refers to his remarks, in a preceding part
of tJie same, on tlie two accounts of tlie creation contained in that book ; which is in-
cluded in this letter.

162 ' LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE.

A book called the Bible has been voted by men, and decreed
by human laws to be the word of God ; and the disbelief of this
is called blasphemy. But if the Bible be not the word of God,
it is the laws and the execution of them that is blasphemy, and
not the disbelief Stranije stories are told of the Creator in that
book. He is represented as acting under the influence of every
human passion, even of the most malignant kind. If these sto-
ries are false, we err in believing them to be true, and ought
not to believe them. It is therefore a duty which every man
owes to himself, and reverentially to his Maker, to ascertain, by
every possible inquiry, whether there be sufficient evidence to
believe them or not.

My own opinion is decidedly, that the evidence does not war-
rant the belief, and that we sin in forcing that belief upon ourselves
and upon others. In saying this, I have no other object in view
than truth. But that I may not be accused of resting upon bare
assertion with respect to the equivocal state of the Bible, I will
produce an example, and I will not pick and cull the Bible for
the purpose. I will go fairly to the case : I will take the two
first chapters of Genesis as they stand, and show from tlience the
truth of what I say, that is, that the evidence does not warrant
the belief that the Bible is the word of God.

CHAPTER L

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was
upon the face of the deep ; and the spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters.

S And God said. Let there be light ; and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good ; and God divided
the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light day, and the darkness he called
night : and the evening and tlu; morning were the first day.

6 11 And God said, Ijct there l)e a firmament in the midst of
the waters, and let it divide the waters from tlie waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which
were under tlic firmament, fidm the waters which were above
the firmament : and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament heaven ; and the evening and
the morning were the .sceond dav.

9 ir And (iod s;iid. Let the waters under tlie heaven be gatiier-
ed together unto one place, and let the dry land appear : and it
was so.

10 And God called the dry land enrlh, nnd tlic rratlierinT toffe-
therof the waters called he seas ; and (Jod saw that it was good.

LETTER TO MR. ERSKIXE. 163

11 And God said, lot the earth bring forth grass, the hqrb
yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind,
whose seed is in itself, upon the earth ; and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed
after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in it-
self, after his kind : and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 IT And God said, Let there be lights in the firmainent of the
heaven, to divide the day from the night : and let them be for
signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven,
to srive liiiht unon tlie earth : and it was so.

16 And God made t^vo great lights ; the greater light to rule
the day, and the lesser light to rule the night : he made the stars
also.

17 And God set them ia the firmament of the heaven, to give
light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide
the light from the darkness ; and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And God said. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the
moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the
earth in the open firmament of heaven. *

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature
that movcth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after
their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind ; and God saw
that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying. Be fruitful, and multiply,
and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 IT And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living crea-
ture after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the
earth after his kind : and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and
cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the
earth after his kind ; and God saw that it was good.

26 IT And God said. Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the
earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth.

27 So God created mail in his own image, in the image of God
created he him: male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said iinto them, Be frnifal,
and vtidliplij, and replenish the earth, and subdue it ; aiid have do-
minion ore)' the fish of the sea, and over the foivl of the air, and over
every living thing that moreth upon the earth.

164 , LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE.

29 TTAnd God said, Behold, I have given you every herb
bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every
tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed : to you it shall
be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the
air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein
there is life, I have given every green herb for meat : and it
was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it
was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth
day.

CHAPTER II.

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the
liost of them.

2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had
made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which
he had made.

3 And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it : because
that in it he had rested from all his work, which God created and
jjiade.

4 IT These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth,
when they were created ; in the day tliat the Lord God made
the earth and the heavens,

5 And every plant of the field, before it was in the earth, and
every herb of the field, before it grew ; for the Lord God had
not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to
till (he ground.

6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the
whole face of the ground.

7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man be-
came a living soul.

8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward of Eden ; and
there he put the man whom he had formed.

9 And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every
tree that is pleasant to tlie sight, and good for food ; tlie tree of
life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledtre of
good and evil.

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden : and
from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

11 The name of the first is Pisnn : that is it which compeiss-
eth the whole land of Ilavilah, where there is gold.

12 And the gold of that land is good : there is bdellium and
he onyx-stone.

LETTER TO MU. ERSKINE. 165

13 And the name of the second river is Gibon : the same ig
it that conipasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

14 And the name of the third river is Heddekel : that is it
which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is
Euphrates.

15 And the Lord God took the man, and put liim into the gai-
den of Eden, to dress it and to keep it.

16 And the Lord God commanded the man. saying, Of every
tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat :

17 But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it ; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
surely die.

18 IF And the Lord God said. It is not good that the man
should be alone : I will make him an help meet for him.

19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast
of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto
Adam, to see what he would call them ; and whatsoever Adam
called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

20 Arid Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the
air, and to every beast of the field ; but for Adam there was not
found an help meet for him.

21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam,
and he slept ; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up th«
flesh instead thereof

22 And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made
he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23 And Adam said, this is now bone of my bone, and flesh of
my flesh ; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out
of man.

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and
shall cleave unto his wife ; and they shall be one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were
not ashamed.

These two chapters are called the Mosaic account of the
creation ; and we are told, nobody knows by whom, that Moses
was instructed by God to write that account.

It has happened that every nation of people has been world-
makers ; and each makes the world to begin his own way, as if
they had all been brought up, as Hudibras says, to the trade.
There are hundreds of different opinions and traditions how the
world began.* ]Vfy business, however, in this place, is only with
those two chapters.

* In this world-making trade, man, of course, has held a conspicuous place ; and,
for the gratification of the curioi»s inquirer, the editor subjoins two sjjecimens of the
opinions of learned men, in regard to the manner of his formation, and of his subse-
cjuent fall. The first he extracts from the Talmud, a work containing the Jewish

166 LETTER TO MR. EUSKINL.

I begin then by saying, that those two chapters, instead of con-
taining, as has been believed, one continued account of the crea-
tion, written by Moses, contain two difierent and contradictory
stories of a creation, made by two different persons, and written in
two different styles of expression. The evidence that shows this
is so clear when attended to without prejudice, that, did we meet
with the same evidence in any Arabic or Chinese account of a
creation, we should not hesitate in pronouncing it a forgery.

I proceed to distinguish the two stories from each other.

The first story begins at the first verse of the first chapter, and
ends at the end of the third verse of the second chapter ; for the
adverbial conjunction, THUS, with which the second chapter be-
gins (as the reader will see,) connects itself to the last verse of the
first chapter, and those three verses belong to, and make the con-
clusion of the first story.

The second story begins at the fourth verse of the second chap-
ter, and ends with that chapter. Tho-se two stories have been
confused into one, by cutting off the three last verses of the first
story, and throwing them to the second chapter.

I go now to show that those stories have been written by two
difTerent persons.

traditions, tlie rabbinical constitutions, and explication of tlie law ; and is of great
aiHhority amnnfr the Jews. It was composed by certain learned rabbins, compre-
hends twelve bulky folios, and forty years are said to have been consumed in its com-
pilation. In fact, it is dceinoJ to cimtain the whole body of ilii^inity for the Jewish
nation. AltlidH'^h ilie Sciiptiires tell us that the I.ord God formed man of the.
dust of the f^round, they do not explain the manner in which it was done, and these
doctors supply the deficiency as fnllows : —

" Adam's body was made of the earth of Babylon, his head of the land of Israel,
his other mcmhcis of other parts of the world. R. IVIcir thought he was compact of
the earth, gathered out of the whole earth ; as it is written, thine eyes did sec my
substance. Now it is elsewhere written, the eyes of the Lord are over all the
earth. II. Aha expressly marks tlie twelve hours in which his various parts were
formed. His stature was from one end of the world to the olner ; and it was for his
transgression that the Creator, laying his hand in anger on him, lessened liiM ; for
before, says R. Eleazer, with his hand he reached the firmament. R. Jehuda thinks
his sin was heresy ; but R. Isaac thinks it was nourishing his foreskin."

The M;iliometan savans give the following account of tiie same transaction :

♦• When God wished to create man he sent the angel Gabriel to take a handful of
each of the seven beds which composed the eardi. But when the latter iieard tiie or-
der of (lod, she fidt much alarmed, ami recjuested the heavenly messenger to represent
to God, tlial as the cicature he was about to form miglit chance to rebel one day
against him, this would be the means of bringing upcm herself the divine malediction.
God, however, far from listening to this request, despatched two other angels, Michael
and Azrael, to execute his will ; but they, moved with compassion, were prevailed
upon again to lay the couiplainLs of the earth at the feet of her author. llien Cod
confined tlie execution of his cominands to the formidable Azrael ahme, wim, regard-
loss of all the earth -might say, vioh'Utly tore from her l)<)som seven handfuls fiom her
various strata, and carried them into .'Vrabia, where the work of creafinn was to be
completed. As to .Awaei, God was so well pleased with the decisive niamier in
whi<h he had acted, that he gave him the ollice of separating tlie soul from the body,
whence he is called the Angel of Death.

Meanwhile, the angels lia\ ing kneaded this earth, God moulded it with his own
liaMds, anii li-fi it some (irnc that it might get dry. The angels delighted to gaze upon
the lifeless, but bi^autiful mass, with the exception of Kblis, or Lucifer, who, bent upon
*;vil, struck it upon the stomach, which giving a hollow sound, he said, since this

LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 167

From the first verse of the first chapter to the ena of the 3d
verse of the second chapter, which makes the whole of the first
story, the word GOD is used without any epithet or additional
word conjoined with it, as the reader will see : and this style of
expression is invariably used throughout the whole of this story,
and is repeated no less than thirty-five times, viz. "In the begin-
ning God created the heavens and the earth, and the spirit of God
moved on the face of the waters, and God said, let there be light,
and God saw the light, Stc. &.c.

But immediately from the beginning of the fourth verse of the
second chapter, where the second story begins, the style of ex-
pression is always the Lord God, and this style of expression is
invariably used to the end of the chapter, and is repeated eleven
times •, in the one it is always God, and never the Lord God ;
in the other it is always the Lord God, and never God. — The
first story contains thirty-four verses, and repeats the single word
God thirty-five times. The second story contains twenty-two
verses, and repeats the compound word Lord-God eleven times ;
this difference of style, so often repeated, and so uniformly con-
tinued, shows, that those two chapters, containing two different
stories, are written by different persons : it is the same in all the
different editions of the Bible, in all the languages I have seen.

Having thus shown, from the diflference of style, that those two
chapters divided, as they properly divide themselves, at the end
of the third verse of the second chapter, are the work of two dif-

creature will be hollow, it will often need being filled, and will be, therefore, exposed
to pregnant temptations. Upon this, he asked the angels how they would act if God
wished to render them dependent upon this sovereign which he was about to give to
the earth. They readily answered that they would obey ; but although Eblis did
not openly dissent, he resolved within himself that he would not follow their example.
After the body of the first man had been properly prepared, God animated it with
an intelligent soul, and clad him in splendid and marvellous garments, suited to the
dignity of this favoured being. He now commanded his angels to fall prostrate be-
fore Adam. All of them obeyed, with the exception of Eblis, who was in conse-
quence immediately expelled from heaven, and his place given to Adam.

The formation of Eve from one of the ribs of the first man, is the same as that re-
corded in the Bible, as is also the order given to the father of mankind, not to taste
tlie fruit of a particular tree. Eblis seized this opportunity of revenge. Having asso-
ciated tlie peacock and the serpent in the enterprize, they^by tlieir wily speeches at
length persuaded Adam to become guilty of disobedience. But no sooner had they
touched the forbidden fruit, than their garments dropped on the ground, and the sight
of their nakedness covered them both with shame and witli confusion. They made a
covering for their body with fig leaves ; but they were both immediately condemned to
labour, and to die, aiid hurled down from Paradise.

Adam fell upon the mountain of Sarendip, in the island of Ceylon, where a moun-
tain is called by his name to the present day. Eve being separated from her spouse
in her fall, alighted on the spot where China now stands, and Eblis fell not far from
the same spot. As to the peacock and the snake, the former dropped in Hindostan,
and the latter in Arabia. Adam soon feeling the enormity of his fault, implored the
mercy of God, who relenting, sent down his angels from heaven with a tabernacle,
T.hich they placed on the spot where Abraham, at a subsequent period, buih the tem-
ple of Mecca. Gabriel instructed him in the rites and ceremonies performed about
tlie sanctuary, in order that he might obtain the forgiveness of his offence, and after-
wards le<l him to the mountain of Ararat, where he met Eve, from whom he had been
DOW separated above two hundred years.

168 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE.

ferent persons, I cpiiie to show, from the contradictory matters
they contain, that they cannot be the work of one person, and are
two different stories.

It is impossible, unless the writer was a lunatic, without mem-
ory, that one and the same person could say, as is said in the 27th
and 28th verses of the first chapter — "-So God created man in his
own hiuige, in the vnuge of God created he him ; male and female
created he them : and God blessed them, and God said unto them,
he fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air,
and every living thing that moveth on the face of the earth.^^ It is, I
say, impossible that the same person, who said this, could after-
wards say, as is said in the second chapter, ver. 5, and there was
not a man to till the ground ; and then proceed in the 7th verse to
give another account of the making a man for the first time, and
afterwards of the making a woman out of his rib.

Again, one and the same person could not write, as is written
in the 29th verse of the first chapter ; "Behold I (God) have giv-
en you every herb bearing seed, which is on the face of the earth;
and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree bearing seed, to you
it shall be for meat," and afterwards say, as is said in the second
chapter, that tlie Lord-God planted a tree in the midst of a gar-
den, and forbad man to eat thereof

Again, one and the same person could not say, " Thus the heav-
ens and the earth icere finished, and all the host of them, and on the
seventh day God ended his tvork rvhlch he had made;'''' and shortly
after set the Creator to work again, to plant a garden, to make a
man and a woman, 8tc. as is done in the second chapter.

Here are evidently two different stories contradicting each
other. — According to the first, the two sexes, the male and the
female, mere made at the same time. According to the second,
they were made at different times; the man first, the woman af-
terwards.— According to the first story, they were to have domin-
ion over all the earth. According to the second, their dominion
was limited to a garden. How large a garden it could be, that
one man and one woman could dress and keep in order, I leave
to the prosecutor, tlie judge, the jury, and Mr. Erskine to de-
termine.

The story of the talking serpent, and its tete-a-tete with Eve :
the doleful adventure, called the Fall of Man: and how he was
turned out of this fine garden, and how the garden was afterwards
locked up and guarded by a flaming sword (if any one can tell
what a flaming sword is,) belong altogether to the second story.
They have no coimection with tlie first story. According to the
first there was no garden of Eden ; no forbidden tree: the scene
was the whole eartli, and the fruit of all the trees was allowed to be
eaten.

In giving this example uf the strange state of the Bible, it can-

LETTER TO MlJ. ERSKINE. 169

not be said I have gone out of mj way to seek it, for I have tak-
en the beginning of the book ; nor can it be said I havt made
more of it, than it makes of itself That there are two stories is
as visible to the eye, when attended to, as that there are two chap-
ters, and that they have been written by different persons, nobody-
knows by whom. If this, then, is the strange condition the be-
ginning of the Bible is in, it leads to a just suspicion, that the oth-
er parts are no better, and consequently it becomes every man's
duty to examine the case. I have done it for myself, and am sat-
isfied that the Bible is fabulous.

Perhaps I shall be told in the cant-language of the day, as I
have often been told by the Bishop of Llandatf and others, of the
great and laudable pains, that many pious and learned men have
taken to explain the obscure, and reconcile the contradictory, or
as they say, the seemingly contradidory passages of the Bible. It
is because the Bible needs such an undertaking, that is one of the
first causes to suspect it is not the word of God : this single re-
flection, when carried home to the mind, is in itself a volume.

What ! does not the Creator of the Universe, the Fountain of
all Wisdom, the Origin of all Science, the Author of all Know-
ledge, the God of Order and of Harmony, know how to write .•*
When we contemplate the vast economy of the creation ; when
we behold the unerring regularity of the visible solar system, the
perfection with which all its several parts revolve, and by corres-
ponding assemblage, form a whole ; — when we launch our eye in-
to the boundless ocean of space, and see ourselves surrounded by
innumerable worlds, not one of which varies from its appointed
place — when we trace the power of a Creator, from a mite to an
elephant — from an atom to an universe — can we suppose that the
mind that could conceive such a design, and the power that exe-
cuted it with incomparable perfection, cannot write without incon-
sistency ; or that a book so written can be the work of such a
power? The writings of Thomas Paine, even of Thomas Paine,
need no commentator to explain, expound, arrange, and re-arrangc
their several parts, to render them intelligible-:-he can relate a
fact, or write an essay, without forgetting in one page what he has
written in another — certainly then, did the God of all perfection
condescend to write or dictate a book, that book would be as per-
fect as himself is perfect : the Bible is not so, and it is confess-
edly not so, by the attempts to amend it.

Perhaps I shall be told, that though I have produced one in-
stance, I cannot produce another of equal force. One is suffi-
cient to call in question the genuineness or authenticity of any
book that pretends to be the word of God ; for such a book would,
as before said, be as perfect as its author is perfect.

I will, however, advance only four chapters further into the
book of Genesis, and produce another examole that is sufficient
to invalidate the story to which it belongs

15

170 LETTER TO MU. ERSKIXE.

We have all heard of Noah's Flood ; and it is impossible to .hink
of the whole human race, men, women, children, and infants (ex-
cept one family) deliberately drowning, without feeling a painful
sensation ; that heart must be a heart of flint that can contemplate
such a scene with tranquillity. There is nothing in the ancient
mythology, nor in the religion of any people we know of upon
the globe, that records a sentence of their God, or of their Gods,
so tremendously severe and merciless, li" Jie story be not true,
we blasphemously dishonour God by believing it, and still more
so, in forcing, by laws and penahies, that belief upon others. 1
go now to show from the face of the story, that it carries the evi-
dence of not being true.

I know not if the judge, the jury, and j\Tr. Erskino, who tried
and convicted Williams, ever read the Bible, or know any thing
of its contents, and therefore I will state the case precisely.

There were no such people as Jews or Israelites, in the time
that Noah is said to have lived, and consequently there was no
such law as that which is called the Jewish, or Mosaic Law. It
is, according to the Bible, more than six hundred years from the
time the flood is said to have happened, to the time of Moses, and
consequently the time the flood is said to have happened, was more
than six hundred years prior to the law, called the law of Moses,
even admitting- Moses to have been the giver of that law, of which
there is great cause to doubt.

We have here two different epochs, or points of time ; that of
the flood, and that of the law of Moses; the former more than sLx
hundred years prior to the latter. But the maker of the story of
the flood, whoever he was, has betrayed himself by blundering, for
he has reversed the order of the times. He has told the story, as
if the law of Moses was jirior to the flood ; for he has made God
to say to Noah, Genesis, chap. vii. ver. 2, "Of every clean beast,
thou shalt take unto thee by sevens, male and his female, and of
beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female." This
is the Mosaic law, and could only be said after that law was given,
not before. There was no such things as beasts clean and un-
clean in the time of Noah — It is no where said they were created
so. — They were only declared to be so, as 7neats, by the Mosaic
law, and that to the Jews only, and there was no such people as
Jews in the time of Noah. This is the blundering condition in
which this strange story stands.

AVhen we reflect on a sentence so tremendously severe, as that
of consigning the whole human race, eight j)crson& excepted, to
deliberate drowning ; a sentence, which represents the Creator
in a more merciless character than any of those whom we call Pa-
gans, ever represented the Creator to be, under the flgnrc of any
of their deities, we ought at least to suspend our belief of it, on a
comparison of the beneficent character ol' the Creator, with tho
tremendous severity of the sentence ; but when we see the story

LEfTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 171

told with such an evident contradiction of circumstances, we ought
to set it doAvn for nothing better than a Jewish fable, told by no-
body knows whom, and nobody knows when.

It is a relief to the genuine and sensible soul of man to find the
story unfounded. It frees us from two painful sensations at once;
that of having hard thoughts of the Creator, on account of the se-
verity of the sentence ; and that of sympathising in the horrrid tra-
gedy of a drowning world. He who cannot feel the force of what
I mean, is not, in my estimation of character, worthy the name of
a human being.

I have just said there is great cause to doubt, if the law, called
the law^of Moses, was given by Moses ; the books, called the
books of Moses, which contain among other things, what is called
the Mosaic law, are put in front of the Bible, in the manner of a
constitution, with a history annexed to it. Had these books been
written by Moses, they would undoubtedly have been the oldest
books in the Bible, and entitled to be ])laced first, and the law and
the history they contain, would be frequently referred to in the
books that follow ; but this is not tlie case. From the time of
Othniel the first of the judges (Judges, chap. iii. ver. 9.) to the
end of the book of Judges, which contains a period of four hun-
dred and ten years, this law, and those books, were not in practice,
nor known among the Jews, nor are they so much as alluded to
throughout the whole of that period. And if the reader will ex-
amine the ^^d and 23d chapters of the 2d book of Kings, and .'34th
chapter 2d Chron. he will find that no such law, nor any such
books were known in the time of the Jewish monarchy, and that
the Jews were Pagans during the whole of that time, and of their
judges.

The first time the law, called the law of Moses, made its ap-
pearance, was in the time of Josiah, about a thousand years after
Moses was dead ; it is then said to have been found by accident.
The account of this finding, or pretended finding, is given, 2d
Chrou. chap, xxxiv. ver. 11, 15, 16, 10: "Hilkiah the priest/owjuZ
the book of the law of the Lord, given by Moses ; and Hilkiah an-
swered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of
the law in the house of the Lord ; and Hilkiah delivered the book
to Shaphan, and carried the book to the king, and Shaphan told
the king (Josiah) saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a
book."

In consequence of this finding, which much resembles that of
poor Chatterton finding manuscript poems of Rowley the Monk,
in the Cathedral church at Bristol, or the late finding of manu-
scripts of Shakespeare in an old chest, (two well known frauds,)
Josiah abolished the Pagan religion of the Jews, massacred all the
Pagan priests, though he himself had been a Pagan, as the reader
will see in the 23d chap. 2d Kings, and thus established in blood,
the law that is there called the law of Moses, and instituted a pass-

172 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE.

over in commemoration thereof. The 22(1 ver. speaking of this
passover, says, "Surely there was not holden such a passover from
the days of the judges, that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the
kings of Israel, nor the kings of Judah ;" and the 25th verse in
speaking of this priest-killing Josiah, says, "ii/ce unto him there
was no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart,
and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the
law of Moses ; neither after him arose there any like him." This
verse, like the former one, is a general declaration against all the
preceding kings without exception. It is also a declaration against
all that reigned after him, of which there were four, the whole
time of whose reigning makes but twenty-two years and six
months, before the Jews were entirely broken up as a nation and
their monarchy destroyed. It is therefore evident that the law,
called the law of Moses, of which the Jews talk so much, was pro-
mulgated and established only in the latter time of the Jewish
monarchy ; and it is very remarkable, that no sooner had they es-
tablished it than they were a destroyed people, as if they were
punished for acting an imposition and affixing the name of the
Lord to it, and massacreing their former priests under the pre-
tence of religion. The sum of the history of the Jews is this —
they continued to be a nation about a thousand years, they then
established a law, which they called the larv of the Lord given by
MoseSy and were destroyed. This is not opinion, but historical
evidence.

Levi the Jew, who has written an answer to the ^ge of Reason,
gives a strange account of the law called the law of Moses.

In speaking of the story of the sun and moon standing still, that
the Israelites might cut the throals of all their enemies, and hang
all their kings, as told in Joshua, ch. x. he says, " There is also
another proof of the reality of this miracle, which is, the appeal
that the author of the book of Joshua makes to the book of Ja-
sher — * Is not this written in the book of Jasher V Hence," conti-
nues Levi, " it is manifest that tlie book commonly called the book
of Jasher, existed, and was well known at the time the book of
Joshua was written ; and pray, Sir," continues Levi, " what book
do you think this was .'' %ohy, no other than the law of Moses .'" —
Levi, like the Bishop of Llandafi", and many other guess-work com-
mentators, either forgets, or docs not know, what there is in one
part of the Bible, when he is giving his opinion upon another part.

I did not, however, expect to find so much ignorance in a Jew
with respect to the history of his nation, though I might not be
surprised at it in a Bishop. If Levi will look into the account
given in the first chap. 2d book of Samuel, of the Amalckite slay-
ing Saul, and bringing the crown and bracelets to David, he will
find the following recital, ver. 15, 17, 18: "And David called
one of the youno- men, and said, go near and fall >ipon him, (the
Amalckite) and he smote him that he died : and David lamented

LETTER TO MR. ERSKKVE. 173

With this lamentation over Saul, and over Jonathan his son ; also
he bade them teach the children the use of the bow ; — behold, it is
written in the book of Jasher.^^ If the book of Jasher were what
Levi calls it, the law of 3Ioses, written by Moses, it is not possible
that any thing that David said or did, could be written in that law,
since Moses died more than five hundred years before David was
born ; and on the other hand, admitting the book of Jasher to be
the law called the law of Moses ; that law must have been written
more than five hundred years after Moses was dead, or it could
not relate any thing said or done by David. Levi may take which
of these cases he pleases, for both are against him.

I am not going in the course of this letter to write a commenta-
ry on the Bible. The two instances I have produced, and which
are taken from the beginning of the Bible, show the necessity of
examining it. It is a book that has been read more, and exam-
ined less, than any book that ever existed. Had it come to us an
Arabic or Chinese book, and said to have been a sacred book by
the people from whom it came, no apology would have been made
for the confused and disorderly state it is in. The tales it relates
of the Creator would have been censured, and our pi'y excited
for those who believed them. We should have vindicated the
goodness of God against such a book, and preached up the disbe-
lief of it out of reverence to him. Why then do we not act as
honourably by the Creator in the one case as we would do in the
other. As a Chinese book we would have examined it ; — ought
we not then to examine it as a Jewish book ? The Chinese are a
people who have all the appearance of far greater antiquity than
the Jews, and in point of permanency there is no comparison. —
They arc also a people of mild manners and of good morals, ex-
cept where they have been corrupted by European commerce. —
Yet we take the word of a restless bloody-minded people, as the
Jews of Palestine were, when we would reject the same authority
from a better people. We ought to see it is hal)it and prejudice
that have prevented people from examining the Bible. Those of
the church of England call it holy, because the Jews called it so,
and because custom and certain acts of parliament call it so, and
they read it from custom. Dissenters read it for the purpose of
doctrinal controversy, and are very fertile in discoveries and in-
ventions. But none of them read it for the pure purpose of infor-
mation, and of rendering justice to t!ie Creator, by examining if
the evidence it contains warrants the belief of its being what it is
called. Instead of doing this, they take it blindfolded, and will
have it to be the word of God whether it be so or not. For my
own part, my belief in the perfection of the Deity will not permit
me to believe, that a book so manifestly obscure, disorderly, and
contradictory, can be his work. I can write a better book myself
This disbelief in me proceeds from my belief in the Creator. I
cannot pin my faith upon the say so of Hilkiah the priest, who said

15*

174 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE.

he found it, or any part of it, nor upon Shaphan the scribe, nor
upon any priests, nor any scribe or man of the law of the present
day.

As to acts of parliament, there are some thai "?ay there are
witches and wizards ; and the persons who made those acts (it
was in the time of James the First,) made also some acts which
call the Bible the Holy Scriptures, or Word of God. But acts of
parliament decide nothing with respect to God ; and as these acts
of parliament makers were wrong with respect to witches and wiz-
ards, they may also be wrong with respect to the book in question.*
It is therefore necessary that the book be examined ; it is our

* It is afflicting to humanity to reflect that, after the blood shed to establish the
dicinity of the Jewish scriptures, it should have hecome necessary to ^rant a new t/ia-
pensation, which, tinough unlieiief and conflicting opinions respecting its true con-
struction, has cost as great or greater sacrifices than the former. Catholics, whea
.they had tlie ascendency, hurnt Protestants, who, in turn, led Catholics to the stake,
and both united in exterminating Dissenters. Tl>e Dissenters, when thi-y iiad the
power, pursued the same course. The dialxdical act of Calvin, in the binning of
Dr. Servetus, is an awful witness of this fact. Servetus suflered two hours in a
slow fire before life was extinct. The Dissenters, who escaped from England, had
scarcely seated themselves in the wilds of America, l)efore they began to exterminate
from the territory they seized upon, all those who did not (jrofess what they called
the orthodox faith. Priests, Quakers, and Adamites, were prchibited from enter-
ing the territory, on pain of death. By priests, they meant clergymen of the Roman
Catliolic, if not also of the Protestant or Ejiiscopal persuasion. Their own priests
tiiey denominated ministers. These puritans also, particularly in the province of
Massachusetts-Bay, put many persons to death on the charge of witchcraft. There
is no account however of their having burned any alive, as was done in Scotland,
about the same period in which the executions took place in Massachusetts-Bay. In
England, Sir Matthew Hale, a judge, eminent for extraordinary piety, condemned
two women to death on the same charge.

I doubt, however, if there Ix; any acts of the parliament now in (<>rce for inflicting
pains and penalties for denying the scriptures to be the word of(iod; as our up-
rig/U judges seem to rely at this time wholly upon, what they rail, the common law
to justify the horrid persecutions which are now carried on in England^ to the dis-
grace of a country that boasts so much of its tolerant spirit.

As the common law is derived from the customs of our ancestors, when in a rude
and barbarous condition, it is not surprising that many of its injunctions should be op-
posed to the ideas, which a society in a civilized and refined state shoulrl deem com-
patible with justice and right. Accordingly we find that government has fr(jm tin»e
to time annulled some of its most prominent atjsurdities ; such as the trials by ordeal,
the wager of battle in case of appeal for murder, under a belief that a supern.itural
power would interfere to save the innocent and destroy tlie guilty in such a combat,
&c. Yet much remains nearly as ridiculous, that recjuires a furUier and more lilx;ral
use of the pruning knife.

" In the <lays of the Stewarts, (A. D. 1670, 22d year of Charles II. Sec the Re-
publiciin, vol. .5. p. 22.) William Pemi was indicted at Common Law fir a riot and
bleach of the peace, on having delivered his sentiments to a congregation of people, in
(irace-church-streel : he told the judge and the jui"v that Couunnn Law was an abuse,
and no law at all ; anil in spite of the threats, the fines and iinprisuumrnts inflicted
on his jurv, they ac(|uitted him on this plea. Wiiliaiii Peiiii found an honest jury."

The introduction however of Chrisfianilv, as composing a part of this Common
Law (bad as uuicli of it is,) is proved to lie a fraud or misroiiccpliou ofthe old Miuinan
French ; as I f^hall show by an extract of a letter tVoin the celebrated .\nierican
■t.itcsman, Thomas Jeflferson, to our worthy Major Cartwright, Iwaring date 5th
June, 1824.

!For a more fulldevelonementof this subject, see Sampson's Anniversnry Discourse,
ore the Historical Society of .\ew-York. kditor.J

LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 175

duty to examine it ; and to suppress the right of examination is
sinful in any government, or in any judge or jury. The Bible
makes God to say to Moses, Deut. chap. vii. ver. 2, " And when

Extract from Jefferson's letter.

" I am glad to find in your book (Tlie English Constitution, produced and illustra-
ted) a formal contradiction, at length, of tlie judiciary usurpation of legislative power ;
for such the judges have usurped in their repeated decisions, tliat Christianity is a
part of the common law. The proof of tiie contrary, which you have adduced, is
incontrovertible : to wit, that tlie common law existed while the Anglo-Saxons were
yet Pagans ; at a time when they had never yet heard the name of Christ pronounced,
or knew that such a character had ever existed. But it may amuse you to show
when, and by what means, they stole this law in upon us. In a case of Quare Impedit,
in die year book, 34 Herwy VI. fo. 38, [1458,] a question was made how far the Ec-
clesiastical law was to be respected in a common law court 1 and Prisot, C. J., gave
his opinion in these words : — ' A tiel les que ils de saint eglise ont en ancien scripture,
covient a nous a donncr credence : car ceo Commen Ley sur quels touts manners leia
8ont fonddes. Et auxy, Sh', nous sumus obliges de conustre lour ley de saint eglise :
et semblalximent ils sont obliges de conustre nostre ley — Et, Sir, si poit apperer or a
nous que I'evesque adfuit come un ordinai"y fera en tiel cas, adorez nous devons ceo
adjuger bon, ou aiiterment nemy V &c. [To such laws as they have of tlie an-
cient scriptures, it behoves us to give credence : for it is that common law upon which
all kinds of law are founded ; and therefore sir are we bound to know their law of
holy church, and in like manner are they obliged to know our laws. And, sir, if it
should appe:ir now to us, that tlie Bishop had done what an ordinary ought to do ia
like case, then we should adjudge it good, and not odierwise.*]

" See G. C. Fitz. abr. qu. imp. 89. Bro. abr. qu. imp. 12. Finch in his 1st Book.
e. 3, is the first afterwards who quotes the case, and mistates it thus, ' to such laws
of the church as have warrant in Holy Scripture, ow law giveth credence,' and
cites Prisot ; mistranslating ' ancient Scripture' into ' holy Scripture ;' whereas
Prisot palpably says, ' to such laws as those of holy church have in ancient torit'
ing it is proper for us to ,'give credence;' to wit, their ancient written laws. This
was in 1513, a century and a half after the dictum of Prisot. Wingate, in 1658,
erects tliis false translation into a maxim of the common law, copying the words ot
Finch, but citing Prisot. Wingate, max. 3, and Sheppard, tit. ' Religion, in 1675
copies the same mistranslation, quoting the Y. 13, Finch and Wingate. Hale ex
presses it in these words : ' Christianity is parcel of the law of England' — 1 Ventris
293. 3. Keb. 607, but quotes no authority. By these echoings and re-echoings from
one to another, it had become so established in 1723, that in the case of the King v.
Woolston, 2. Stra. 834, the court would not suffer it to be debated, whether to write
against Christianity was punishable in the temporal court at common law. Wood,
therefore, 409, ventures still to vary the phrase, and says, ' that all blasphemy and
profaneness are offences by the common law,' and cites 2 Stra. — then Blackstone,
in 1773, iv. 59, repeats the words of Hale, that ' Christianity is part of the law of
England,' citing Ventris and Strange ; and finally. Lord Mansfield, with a little quali-
fication, in Evan's case in 1767, says, that ' the essential principles of revealed re-
ligion are parts of the common law ;' thus ingulfing Bible, Testament, and ail into
the common law, without citing any authority ; and thus we find this chain of au-
thorities hanging, link bv link, one upon another, and all ultimately on one and the
same hook ; and that, a mistranslation of the words ' ancient scripture,' used by
Prisot. Finch quotes Prisot; Wingate does the same; Sheppard quotes Prisot,
Finch, and Wingate ; Hale cites nobody ; the court in Woolston's case, cites Hale ;
Wood cites Woolston's case ; Blackstone quotes Woolston's case and Hale; and
Lord Mansfield, like Hale, ventures it on his own authority. Here I might defy the
best read lawyer to produce another scrap of authority for this judiciary forgery ;
and I might go on further to show how some of the Anglo-Saxon priests interpolated
into the text of Alfred's laws the 20th, 21st, 22d, and 23d chapters of Exodus, and
the 15tli of the Acts of die Apostles, from the 23d to the 29th verses ; but this \voul<i
lead my pen, and your patience, too far. What a conspiracy this, between church
and state !!!"

[* The canons of the church anciently were incorporated with the Laws of the
land, and of the same authority. See Dr. Henry's hist. G. Britain. Editor.}

176 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE.

the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite
them, and utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with
them, twr show mercy unto them.'''' Not all the priests, nor scribes,
nor tribunals in the world, nor all the authority of man, shall make
me believe that God ever gave such a Robesperian precept as that
of showing no mercy ; and consequently it is impossible that I, or
any person wlio believes as reverentially of the Creator as 1 do,
can believe such a book to be the word of God.

There have been, and still are those, who, whilst they profess
to believe tlie Bible to be the word of God, affect to turn it into
ridicule. Taking their profession and conduct together, they act
blasphemously : because tiiey act as if God himself was not to be
believed. The case is exceedingly different with respect to the
Ji'j^e of Reason. That book is written to show from the Bible it-
self, that there is abundant matter to suspect it is not the word of
God, and that we have been imposed upon, first by Jews, and af-
terwards by priests and commentators.

Not one of those who have attempted to write answers to the
^ige of Reason, have taken the ground upon which only an answer
could be written. The case in question is not upon any ))oint of
doctrine, but altogether upon a matter of fact. Is the book called
the Bible the word of God, oris it not? If it can be proved to be
so, it ought to be believed as such ; if not, it ought not to be be-
lieved as such. This is the true state of the case. The Jlge of
Reason produces evidence to show, and I have in this letter pro-
duced additional evidence, that it is not the word of God. Those
who take tlie contrary side, should prove that it is. But this they
have not done, nor attempted to do, and consequently they have
done nothing to the purpose.

The prosecutors of Williams have shrunk from the point, as the
answers have done. They have availed themselves of prejudice
instead of proof If a writing was produced in a court of judica-
ture, said to be the writing of a certain person, and upon the reali-
ty or non-reality of which, some matter at issue depended, the
point to be proved would be, that such writing was tlie writing of
such person. Or if the issue depended upon certain words, which
some certain person was said to have spoken, the point to be prov-
ed would be, that such words were spoken by such person ; and
Mr. Erskine would contend the case upon this ground. A certain
book is said to be the word of God. What is the proof that it is so ?
for upon this the whole depends ; and if it cannot be proved to be
so, the prosecution fails for want of evidence.

The prosecution against ^Villiams charges him with publishing
a book, entitled The Jlge of Reason, which it says, is an impious,
blas|ilirnious pamphlet, tending to ridicule and bring into contempt
the Holy Scriptures. Nothing is more easy than to find abusive
words, and English prosecutions arc famous for this species of vul-
garity. The charge, however, is sophistical ; for the charge, as

LETTER TO MR. ERSKIXE. 177

growing out of the pamphlet, should have stated, not as it now
states, to ridicule and bring into contempt the Holy Scriptures, but
to show, that the book called the Holy Scriptures are not the Ho-
ly Scriptures. It is one thing if I ridicule a work as being writ-
ten by a certain person ; but it is quite a different thing if I write
to prove that such work was not written by such person. In the
first case, 1 attack the person through the work ; in the other case,
I defend the honour of the person against the work. This is what
the Jlgc of Reason does, and consequently the charge in the in-
dictment is sophistically stated. Every one will admit, that if the
Bible be not the word of God, we err in believing it to be his word,
and ought not to believe it. Certainly, then, the ground the prose-
cution should take, would be to prove that the Bible is in fact what
it is called. But this the prosecution has not done, and cannot do.

In all cases the prior fact must be proved, before the subse-
quent facts can be admitted in evidence. In a prosecution for
adultery, the fact of marriage, which is the prior fact, must be
proved before the facts to prove adultery can be received. If the
fact of marriage cannot be proved, adultery cannot be proved ;
and if the prosecution cannot prove the Bible to be the word of
God, the charge of blasphemy is visionary and groundless.

In Turkey they might prove, if the case happened, that a cer-
tain book was bought of a certain bookseller, and that the said
book was written against the Koran, In Spain and Portugal they
iiiight prove, that a rertain book was bought of a certam booksel-
ler, and that the said book was written against the infallibility of
the Pope. Under the ancient mythology they might have proved,
that a certain writing was bought of a certain person, and that
the said writing was written against the belief of a plurality of
Gods, and in the support of the belief of one God. Socrates was
condemned for a work of this kind.

All these are but subsequent facts, and amount to nothing, un-
less the prior facts be proved. The prior fact, with respect to
the first case, is. Is the Koran the word of God? With respect to
the second, Is the infallibility of the Pope a truth? With respect
to the third, Is the belief of a plurality of Gods a true belief ? and
in like manner with respect to the present prosecution, Is the book
called the Bible the word of God ? If the present prosecution
prove no more than could be proved in any or all of these cases,
it proves only as they do, or as an inquisition would prove ; and
in this view of the case, the prosecutors ought at least to leave off
reviling that infernal institution, the inquisition. The prosecu-
tion, however, though it may injure the individual, may promote
the cause of truth ; because the manner in which it has been con-
ducted, appears a confession to the world, that there is no evi-
dence to prove that the Bible is the word of God. On what au-
thority then do we believe the many strange stories that the Bible
tells of God ?

178 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE.

This prosecution has been carried on through the medium of
what is called a special jury, and the whole ot'a special jury is
nominated by the master of the crown ofhce. 3Ir. Erskine vaunts
himself upon the bill he brought into parliament, with respect to
trials, for what the government party calls libels. But if in crown
prosecutions, the master of the crown office is to continue to ap-
point the whole special jury, which he does by nominating the
forty eight persons from which the solicitor of each party is to
strike out twelve, Mr. Erskine's bill is only vapour and smoke
The root of the grievance lies in the manner of forming the jury,
and to this Mr. Erskine's bill applies no remedy.

When the trial of Williams came on, only eleven of the special
jurymen appeared, and the trial was adjourned. In cases where
the whole number do not appear, it is customary to make up the
deficiency by taking jurymen from persons present in the court.
T^is, in the law term, is called a Talcs. Why was not this done
in this case ? Reason will suggest, that they did not choose to
depend on a man accidentally taken. When the trial re-com-
menced, the whole of the special jury appeared, and Williams
was convicted : it is folly to contend a cause where the whole
jury is nominated by one of the parties. I will relate a recent
case that explains a great deal with respect to special juries in
crown prosecutions.

On tlie trial of liambert and others, printers and proprietors of
the JMomhif^ Clironxclc, for a libel, a special jury was struck, on
the prayer of the Attorney-General, who used to be called Diabo-
lus Regis, or King's Devil.

Only seven or eight of the special jury appeared, and the At-
torney-General not praying a Tales, the trial stood over to a fu-
ture day ; when it was to be brought on a second time, the At-
torney-General prayed for a new special jury, but as this was
not admissible, the original special jury was summoned. Only
eight of them appeared, on which the Attorney-General said,
" As I cannot, on a second trial, have a special jury, I will pray
a Tahsy Four persons were then taken from the persons pres-
ent in court, and added to the eight special jurymen. The jury
went out at two o'clock to consult on their verdict, and the Judge
(Kenyon) understanding they were divided, and likely to be
some time in making up their minds, retired fnnn the bench, and
went home. At seven the jury went, attended by an officer of
the court, to the Judge's house, and delivered a verdict, " Guilty
ofpuhlislihig, hut with no maricious i»/(»/ioH." The Judge said,
" I cnnnot record this verdict ; it is no verdict at all.'''' The jury
withdrew, and al^er sittinji in consultation till five in the morninff,
brought in a verdict, Not Guilty. Would tliis have been the
case, h;id they been all special jurymen nominated by tlie Master
of the Crown-uflice ? This is one of the cases that ought to

LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 179

open the eyes of people with respect to the manner of forming
special juries.

On the trial of Williams, the Judge prevented the counsel for
the defendant proceeding in the defence. The prosecution had
selected a number of passages from the Age of Reason, and in-
serted them in the indictment. The defending counsel was select-
ing other passages to show, that the passages in the indictment
were conclusions drawn from premises, and unfairly separated
therefrom in the indictment. The Judge said, he did not hiioio
how to act ; meaning thereby whether to let the counsel proceed
in the defence or not, and asked the jury if they wished to hear
the passages read which the defending counsel had selected.
The jury said no, and the defending counsel was in consequence
silent. Mr. Erskine then, Falstaff like, having all the tield to
himself, and no enemy at hand, laid about him most heroically,
and the jury found the defendant guilty. I know not if Mr. Ers-
kine ran out of court and hallooed, huzza for the Bible and
the trial by jury.

Robespierre caused a decree to be passed during the trial of
Brissot and others, that after a trial had lasted three days, (the
whole of which time, in the case of Brissot, was taken up by the
prosecuting party) the judge should ask the jury (who were then
a packed jury) if they were satisfied ? If the Jury said yes, the trial
ended, and the jury proceeded to give their verdict, without hear-
ing the defence of the accused party. It needs no depth of wis-
dom to make an application of this case.

I will now state a case to show that the trial of Williams is not
a trial, according to Kenyon's own explanation of law.

On a late trial in London (Selthens versus Hoossman) on a poli-
cy of insurance, one of the jurymen, Mr. Dunnage, after hearing
one side of the case, and without hearing the other side, got up
and said, it was as legal a policy of insurance as ever was written.
The Judge, who was the same as presided on the trial of Williams,
replied, that it ivas a gixat misfortune when any gentleman of the
jury makes up his mind on a cause before ii was finished. Mr. Ers-
kine, who in that case was counsel for the defendant (in this he
was against the defendant) cried out, it is worse than a misfortune,
it is afault. The Judge, in his address to the jury in summing
up the evidence, expatiated upon, and explained the parts which
the law assigned to the counsel on each side, to the witnesses,
and to the Judge, and said, " TVIien all Uiis tvas done, and not un-
til then, it icas the business of the jury to declare what the justice
of the case was ; and that it was extremely rash and imprudent in
any man to draw a conclusion before all the premises 7vere laid be-
fore them, upon ivhich that conclusion was to be grounded.^'' Ac-
cording then to Kenyon's own doctrine, the trial of Williams is
an irregular trial, the verdict an irregular verdict, and as such is
not recordable.

180 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE.

As to special juries, they were but modern ; and were institut
ed for the purpose of determining cases at laiv between mer
chants ; because, as the method of keeping merchants' accounts
differs from that of common tradesmen, and their business, by
lying much in foreign bills of exchange, insurance, &c., is of a
different description to that of common tradesmen, it might hap-
pen that a common jury might not be competent to form a judg-
ment. The law that instituted special juries, makes it necessary
that the jurors be merchanls, or of the degree of squms. A spe-
cial jury in London is generally composed of merchants ; and
in the country of men called country squires, that is, fo.\-hunters,
or men qualified to hunt foxes. The one may decide very well
upon a case of pounds, shillings, and pence, or of the counting-
house ; and the other of the jockey-club or the chase. But who
would not laugh, that because such men can decide such cases,
they can also be jurors upon theology. Talk with some London
merchants about scripture, and they will understand you mean
scrip, and tell you how much it is worth at the Stock Exchange.
Ask them about theology, and they will say, they know of no
sucli gentleman upon Change. Tell some country squires of
the sun and moon standing still, the one on the top of a hill and
the other in a valley, and they will swear it is a lie of one's own
making. Tell them that God Almighty ordered a man to make
a cake and bake it with a t — d and eat it, and they will say it is
one of Dean Swift's blackguard stories. Tell them it is in the
Bible, and they will lay a bowl of punch it is not, and leave it to
the parson of the parish to decide. Ask them also about theolo-
gy, and they will say, they know of no such one on the turf.
An appeal to such juries serves to bring the Bible into more
ridicule than any thing the author of the Jige of Reason has writ-
ten ; and the manner in which the trial has been conducted
shows, that the prosecutor dares not come to the point, nor meet
the defence of the defendant. But all otiier cases apart, on
what ground of right, otherwise than on the right assumed by an
inquisition, do such prosecutions stand .'' Religion is a private
affair between every man and his Maker, and no tribunal of third
party has a right to interfere between tliom. It is not properly
a thing of this world ; it is only practised in this world ; but its
object is in a future world ; and it is no otherwise an object of
just laws, tlian for the purpose of jirotecting the equal rights of
all, however various their beliefs may be. If one man choose
to believe the book called the Bible to be the word of God, and
another, from the convinced idea of the purity and perfection of
God, compared with the contradictions the book contains — from
the lasciviousness of some of its stories, like that of Lot getting
drunk and debauching hi.s two daughters, which is not spoken
ot as a crime, and for which the most absurd apologies are made
— from the immorality of some of its precepts, like tliat of showing

LETTER TO MR, ERSKINE. 18

no mercy — and from the total want of evidence on the case, thinks
he ought not to beUeve it to be the word of God, each of them
has an equal right ; and if the one has a right to give his reasons
for believing it to be so, the other has an equal right to give liia
reasons for believing the contrary. Any thing that goes beyom^
this rule is an inquisition Mr. Erskine talks of his moral ed
uation ; Mr. Erskine is very little acquainted with theologica
subjects, if he does not know there is such a thing as a sincere
and religions belief that the Bible is not the \v'ord of God. This
is my belief ; it is the belief of thousands far more learned thar
Mr. Erskine ; and it is a belief that is every day increasing. I
is not infidelity, as Mr. Erskine profanely and abusively calls
it : it is the direct reverse of infidelity. It is a pure religious
belief, founded on the idea of the perfection of the Creator. If
the Bible be the word of God, it needs not the wretched aid (>f
prosecutions to support it ; and you might with as much propria
ty make a law to protect the sunshine, as to protect the Bible, it
the Bible, like the sun, be the work of God. We see that Go«*
takes good care of the Creation he has made. He suffers nn
part of it to be extinguished : and he will take the same care of
his word, if he ever gave one. But men ought to be i-everentially
careful and suspicious how they ascribe books to him as his ivord
which from this confused condition would dishonour a commor
scribbler, and against which there is abundant evidence, and
every cause to suspect imposition. Leave then the Bible to it-
self God will take care of it if he has any thing to do with it,
as he takes care of the sun and the moon, which need not your
laws for their better protection. As the two instances I have
produced in the beginning of this letter, from the book of Gene-
sis, the one respecting the account called the Mosaic account
of the Creation, the other of the Flood, sufficiently show the ne-
cessity of examining the Bible, in order to ascertain what degree
of evidence there is for receiving or rejecting it as a sacred
book ; I shall not add more upon that subject ; but in order to
show Mr. Erskine that there are religious establishments for pub-
lic worship which make no profession of faith of the books call-
ed holy scriptures, nor admit of priests, I will conclude with an
account of a society lately began in Paris, and which is very
rapidly extending itself.

The society takes the name of Theophilantropes, which would
be rendered in English by the word Theophilanthropists, a word
compounded of three Greek words, signifying God, Love, and
Man. The explanation given to this word is, Lovers of God and
Man, or Adorers of God and Friends of Man, adorateurs de Dieu
et amis des hommes. The society proposes to publish each year
a volume, entitled, Anne Religieuse des Theophilantropes, Re-
ligious year of the Theophilanthropists : the first volume is just
vublished, entitled

16

182 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE.

RELIGIOUS YEAR of the THEOPHILANTHROPISTS

OR,

ADORERS OF GOD, AND FRIEJs'DS OF MAJV.

Being a collection of the discourses, lectures, hymns, and can-
ticles, for all the religious and moral festivals of the Theophilan-
thropists during the course of the year, whether in their public
temples or in their private families, published by the author of the
Manuel of the Theophilanthropists.

The volume of this year, which is the first, contains 214 pages
duodecimo.

The following is the table of contents : —

1. Precise history of tlic Theophilanthropists.

2. Exercises common to all the festivals.

3. Hymn, No. 1 , God of whom the universe speaks.

4. Discourse upon the existence of God.

5. Ode II. The heavens instruct the earth.

6. Precepts of wisdom, extracted from the book of the Ado-

rateurs.

7. Canticle, No. III. God Creator, soul of nature.

8. Extracts from divers moralists upon the nature of God, and

upon the physical proofs of his existence.

9. Canticle, No. IV. Let us bless at our waking the God who

gives us light.

10. Moral thouglits extracted from the Bible.

11. Hymn, No. V. Father of the universe.

12. Contemplation of nature on the first days of the spring.
1.3. Ode, No. YI. Lord in thy glory adorable.

14. Extracts from the moral tlioughts of Confucius.

15. Canticle in praise of actions, and thanks for the works of the

creation.

16. Continuation from the moral thoughts of Confucius.

17. Hymn, No. VII. All the universe is full of thy magnificence.

18. Extracts from an ancient sage of India upon the duties of

families.

19. U|)on the spring.

20. Moral thouglits of divers Chinese authors.

21. Canticle, No. YIII. Every thing celebrate the glory of the

eternal.

22. Continuation of the moral thoughts of Chinese authors,

23. Invocation for the country.

24. Extracts from the moral thoughts ofThcognis.

25. Invocation, Creator of man.

26. Ode, No. IX. Upon Death.

27. E.xtracts from the book of the Moral Universid, upon happi-

ness.

28. Ode, No. X. Supreme Author of Nature.

LETTER TO MR, ERSKINE. 183

INTRODUCTION,

ENTITLED
PRECISE HISTORY OF THE THEOPHILANTHROPISTS.

" Towards the month of Vendimiaire, of the year 5, (Sept
1796) there appeared at Paris a small work, entitled, Manuel of
the Th-eoantropophiles, since called, for the sake of easier pro-
nunciation, Theophilantropes, (Theophilanthropists,) published
by C — .

'* The worship set forth in this Manuel, of which the origin is
from the beginning of the world, was then professed by some fam-
ilies in the silence of domestic life. But no sooner was the Man-
uel published, than some persons, respectable for their knowledge
and their manners, saw, in the formation of a society open to the
public, an easy method of spreading moral religion, and of leading
by degrees, great numbers to the knowledge thereof, who appear
to have forgotten it. This consideration ought of itself not to
leave inditferent those persons who know that morality and reli-
gion, which is the most solid support thereof, are necessary to the
maintenance of society, as well as to the happiness of the individ-
ual. These considerations determined the families of the Theo-
philanthropists to unite publicly for the exercise of their worship.

" The first society of this kind opened in the month of Nivose,
year 5, (Jan. 1797) in the street Dennis, No. 34, corner of Lom-
bard-street. The care of conducting this society was undertak-
en by five fathers of families. They adopted the Manuel of the
Theophilanthropists. They agreed to hold their days of public
worship on the days corresponding to Sundays, but without mak-
ing this a hindrance to other societies to choose such other day
as they thought more convenient. Soon after this, more socie-
ties were opened, of which some celebrate on the decadi (tenth
oay) and others on the Sunday : it was also resolved, that the
committee should meet one hour each week for the purpose of
preparing or examining the discourses and lectures proposed for
the next general assembly. That the general assemblies should
be called Fetes (festivals) religious and moral. That those fes-
tivals should be conducted in principle and form, in a manner,
as not to be considered as the festivals of an exclusive worship ;
and that in recalling those who might not be attached to any par-
ticular worship, those festivals might also be attended as moral
exercises by disciples of every sect, and consequently avoid, by
scrupulous care, every thing that might make the society appear
under the name of a sect. The society adopts neither ntes nor
pnesllwod, and it will never lose sight of the resolution not to
advance any thing, as a society, inconvenient to any sect or
sects, in any time or country, and under any government.

" It will be seen, that it is so much the more easy for the soci-
etv to keep within this circle, because, that the dogmas of the The-

184 LETTER TO JIR. ERSKIXE.

ophilanthropists are those upon wliich all the sects have agreed,
that their moral is that upon which there has never been the least
dissent ; and that the name they have taken, expresses the double
end of all the sects, that of leading to the adoration of God and
love of mail.

"■ The Theophilanthropists do not call themselves the disciples
of such or such a man. They avail themselves of the wise pre-
cepts that have been transmitted by writers of all countries and in
all ages. The reader will find in the discourses, lectures, hymns,
and canticles, which the Theophilanthropists have adopted for
their religious and moral festivals, and \vhich they present under
the title of Annee Ileligieuse, extracts from moralists, ancient and
modern, divested of maxims too severe, or too loosely conceived,
or contrary to piety, whether towards God or towards man."

Next follow the dogmas of the Theopliilanthropists, or things
they profess to believe. .These are but two, and are thus ex-
pressed, les Theophilanlropes croient a Vexistence de Dieu, ct a ViiK-
itwrtaliie de Vaine. The Theophilanthropists believe in the exis-
tence of God, and the immortality of the soul.

The Manuel of the Theophilanthropists, a small volume of
sixty pages, duodecimo, is published separately, as is also their
catechism, which is of the same size. The principles of the The-
ophilanthropists are the same as those published in the first part
of the ^ge of Reason in 1793, and in the second part in 1795. —
The Theophilanthropists, as a society, are silent upon all the
things they do not profess to believe, as the sacredness of the
books called the Bible, &c. Stc. They profess the immortality of
the soul, but they are silent on the immortality of the body, or
that which the church calls the resurrection. The author of the
^ge of Reason gives reasons for every thing he disbelieves, as well
as for those he believes; and where this cannot be done with safe-
ty, the government is a despotism, and the church an inquisition.

It is more than three years since the first part of the Jige of
Reason was published, and more than a year and a half since the
publication of the second part : the Bishop of LlandafF undertook
to write an answer to the second part ; and it was not until after
it was known that the author of the Jlge of Reason would reply to
the bishop, that the prosecution against the book was set on foot ;
and which is said to be carried on by some clergy of the English
church. If the bi.shop is one of them, and the object be to pre-
vent an exposure of the numerous and gross errors he has com-
mitted in his work, (and which he wrote when report said that
Thomas Paine was dead,) it is a conl'ossion that he feels the
weakness of his cause, and finds himself unable to maintain it.
In this case he has given me a triumph I did not seek, and Mr
Erskinc, the herald of the prosecution, has proclaimed it.

THOMAS PAINE

A
DISCOURSE

Delivered to the Society of Theojjhilanthropists, at Pans

Religion has two principal enemies, Fanaticism and Infidelity,
or that which is called Atheism. The first requires to be com-
bated by reason or morality, the other by natural philospphy.

The existence of a God is the first dogma of the Theophilan-
thropists. It is upon this subject that I solicit your attention : for
though it has been often treated of, and that most sublimely, the
subject is inexhaustible ; and there will always remain something
to be said that has not been before advanced. I go therefore to
open the subject, and to crave your attention to the end.

The universe is the Bible of a true Theophilanthropist. It is
there that he reads of God. It is there that the proofs of his ex-
istence are to be sought and to be found. As to written or printed
books, by whatever name they are called, they are the works of
man's hands, and carry no evidence in themselves that God is the
author of any of them. It must be in something that man could
not make, that we must seek evidence for our belief, and that
something is the universe ; the true Bible ; the inimitable work
of God.

Contemplating the universe, the whole system of creation, in
this point of light, we shall discover that all that which is called
natural philosophy is properly a divine study. It is the study of
God through his works. It is the best study, by which we can
arrive at a knowledge of his existence, and the only one by which
we can gain a glimpse of his perfection.

Do we want to contemplate his power ? We see it in the im-
mensity of the creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom .'*
We see it in the unchangeable order by which the incomprehensi-
ble WHOLE is governed. Do we want to contemplate his munifi-
cence .'' We see it in the abundance with which he fills the earth.
Do we want to contemplate his mercy ? We see it in his not with-
holding that abundance even from the unthankful. In fine, do we
want to know what God is? Search not written or printed books,
but the scripture called the Creation.

It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all
the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accom-
plishments only ; whereas they should be taught theologically, or
with reference to the Being who is the author of them : for all the
principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or
invent, or contrive principles. He can only discover tiiem ; and
he ought to look through the discovery to the author.

IG*

186 DISCOURSE TO THE SOCIETY

When we examine an extraordinary piece of machinery, an as-
tonishing pile of architecture, a well executed statue, or an highly
tinished. painting, where life and action are imitated, and habit
only prevents our mistaking a surface of light and shade for cu-
bical solidity, our ideas are naturally led to think of the extensive
genius and talents of tlie artist. When we study the elements of
geometry, we think of Euclid. When we speak of gravitation,
we think of Newton. How then is it, that when we study the
works of God in the creation, we stop short, and do not think of
God .' It is from the error of the schools in having taught those
subjects as accomplishments only, and thereby separated the
study of them from the Being who is the author of them.

The schools have made the study of theology to consist in the
study of opinions in written or printed books ; whereas theology
should be studied in the works or book of the Creation. Tlie
study of theology in books of opinions has often produced fanati-
cism, rancour, and cruelty of temper; and from hence have pro-
ceeded the numerous persecutions, the fanatical quarrels, the re-
ligious burnings and massacres, that have desolated Europe. But
the study of theology in the works of the Creation produces a
direct contrary effect. The mind becomes at once enlightened
and serene; a copy of the scene it beholds; information and adora
tion go hand in hand; and all the social faculties become enlarged.

The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in
teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has been
that of generating in tlie pupils a species of Atheism. Instead of
looking through the works of the creation to the Creator himself,
they stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create
doubts of his existence. They labour with studied ingenuity to
ascribe every thing they behold to innate properties of matter ;
and jump over all the rest, by saying, that matter is eternal.

Let us examine this subject ; it is worth examining ; for if we
examine it through all its cases, the result will be, that the exist-
ence of a superior cause, or that which man calls God, will be
discoverable by philosophical principles.

In the first place, admitting matter to have properties, as we see
it has, the question still remains, how came matter by those pro-
perties? To this they will answer, that matter possessed those
properties eternally. This is not solution, but assertion ; and to
deny it is equally impossible of proof as to assert it. It is then
necessary to go further ; and therefore I say, if there exists a cir-
cumstance that is not a property of matter, and without which the
universe, or, to speak in a limited degree, the solar system, com-
posed of planets and a sun, could not exist a moment ; all the ar-
guments of Atheism, drawn from properties of matter, and applied
to account for the universe, will be overthrown, and the existence
of a superior cause, or that which man calls God, becomes dis-
coverable, as is before said, by natural philosophy.

OF THEOPHILANTHROPISTS. 187

I go now to show that such a circumstance exists, and what it
is :

The universe is composed of matter, and as a system is sus-
tained by motion. 3Iotion is not a properly of matter, and with-
out this motion, the solar system could not exist. Were motion a
property of matter, that undiscovered and undiscoverable thing
called perpetual motion would establish itself. It is because mo-
tion is not a property of matter that perpetual motion is an impos-
sibility in the hand of every being but that of the Creator of mo-
tion. When the pretenders to Atheism can produce perpetual
motion, and not till then, they may e.xpect to be credited.

The natural state.of matter, as to place, is a state of rest. Mo-
tion or change of place, is the effect of an external cause acting
upon matter. As to that faculty of matter that is called gravita-
tion, it is the influence which two or more bodies have recipro-
cally on each other to unite and be at rest. Every thing which
has hitherto been discovered with respect to the motion of the
planets in the system, relates only to the laws by which motion
acts, and not to the cause of motion. Gravitation, so far from be-
ing the cause of motion to the planets that compose the solar sys-
tem, would be the destruction of the solar system, were revolu-
tionary motion to cease ; for as the action of spinning upholds a
top, the revolutionary motion upholds the planets in their orbits,
and prevents them from gravitating and forming one mass with
the sun. In one sense of the word, philosophy knows, and Athe-
ism says, that matter is in perpetual motion. But motion here
refers to the slate of matter, and that only on the surface of the
earth. It is either decomposition, which is continually destroying
the form of bodies of matter, or re-composition, which renews that
matter in the same or another form, as the decomposition of ani-
mal or vegetable substances enter into the composition of other
bodies. But the motion that upholds the solar system is of an
entire different kind, and is not a property of matter. It operates
also to an entire different effect. It operates to perpetual preser-
vation, and to prevent amj change in the state of the system.

Giving then to matter all the properties which philosophy knows
it has, or all that Atheism ascribes to it, and can prove, and even
supposing matter to be eternal, it will not account for the system
of the universe, or of the solar system, because it will not account
for motion, and it is motion that preserves it. When, therefore,
we discover a circumstance of such immense importance, that
without it the universe could not exist, and for which neither mat-
ter, nor any, nor all the properties of matter cannot account ; we
are by necessity forced into the rational and comfortable belief
of the existence of a cause superior to matter, and that cause man
calls God.

As to that which is called nature, it is no other than the laws
by which motion and action of every kind, with respect to unin«

188 DISCOURSE TO THE SOCIETY

telligible matter is regulated. And when we speak of looking
tlirough nature up to nature's God, we speak philosophically the
same rational language as when we speak of looking through hu-
man laws up to the power that ordained them.

God is the power or first cause, natuie is the law, and matter is
the subject acted upon.

Jjiit iuHdclity, by ascribing every plienomenon to properties of
matter, conceives a system ibr which it cannot account, and yet
it pretends to demonstration. It reasons irom what it sees on the
surface of the earth, but it does not carry itself on the solar sys-
tem existing by motion. It sees upon tlie surface a perpetual
decomposition and recomposition of matter. It sees that an oak
produces an acorn, an acorn an oak, a bird an egg, an egg a bird,
and so on. In things of this kind it sees something which it calls
natural cause, but none of the causes it sees is the cause of that
motion which preserves the solar system.

Let us contemplate this wonderful and stupendous system con-
sisting of matter and existing by motion. It is not matter in a
state of rest, nor in a state of decomposition or recomposition. It
is matter systematized in perpetual orbicular or circular motion.
As a system that motion is the life of it, as animation is life to an
animal body ; deprive the system of motion, and, as a system, it
must expire. Who then breathed into the system the life of mo-
tion? What power impelled the planets to move, since motion io
not a property of the matter of which they are composed ? If we
contemplate the immense velocity of this motion, our wonder be-
comes increased, and our adoration enlarges itself in the same
proportion. To instance only one of the planets, that of the earth
we inhabit, its distance from the sun, the centre of the orbits of
ail the planets, is, according to observations of the transit of the
planet Venus, about one hundred million miles ; conse-quently, the
diameter of the orbit or circle in which the earth moves round the
sun, is double that distance ; and the measure of the circumfer-
ence of the orbit, taken as three times its diameter, is six hundred
million miles. The earth performs this voyage in 365 days and
some hours, and consequently moves at the rate of more than one
million six hundred thousand miles every twenty-four hours.

Where will infidelity, where will Atlieism find cause for this
astonishing velocity of motion, never ceasing, never varying, and
whicii is the preservation of the eartli in its orbit ? It is not by
reasoning from an acorn to an oak, or from any change in the
state of matter on the surface of the earth, that this can be ac-
counted for. Its cause is not to be found in matter, nor in any
thing we call nature. The Atheist who afiects to reason, and
tlie fanatic who rejects reason, plunge themselves alike into in-
extricable difiiculties. The one perverts the sublime and en-
lightening study of natural philosophy into a deformity of al>«ur-
dities by not reasoning to the end. The other loses himself in

OF THEOPHILANTHROPISTS. 189

the obscurity of metaphysical theories, and dishonours the Crea-
tor, by treating the study of his works with contempt. The one
is a half-rational of whom there is some hope, the other a vision-
ary to whom we must be charitable.

When at first thought we think of a Creator, our ideas appear
to us undefined and confused ; but if we reason philosophically,
those ideas can be easily arranged and simplified. It is a Being
whose power is equal to his rcill. Observe the nature of the will of
man. It is of an infinite quality. We cannot conceive the pos-
sibility of limits to the will. Observe on the other haod, how
exceedingly limited is his power of acting compared with the na-
ture of his will. Suppose the power equal to the will, and man
would be a God. He would will himself eternal, and be so. lie
could will a creation and could make it. In this progressive rea-
soning, we see in the nature of the will of man, half of that which
wc conceive in thinking of God ; add the other half, and we have
the whole idea of a being who could make the universe, and sus-
tain it by perpetual motion ; because he could create that motion.

We know nothing of the capacity of the will of animals, but we
know a great deal of the difterence of their powers. For ex-
ample, how numerous are the degrees, and how immense is the
difterence of power, from a mite to a man. Since then every
thing we see below us shows a progression of power, where is
the difficulty in supposing that there is, at the summit of all things,
a Being in whom an infinity of power unites with the infinity of
the will. When this simple idea presents itself to our mind, we
have the idea of a perfect Being that man calls God.

It is comfortable to live under the belief of the existence of an
infinitely protecting power ; and it is an addition to that comfort
to know, that such a belief is not a mere conceit of the imagina-
tion, as many of the theories that are called religious are ; nor
a belief founded only on tradition or received opinion, but is a
belief deducible by the action of reason upon the things that
compose the system of the universe ; a belief arising out of visi-
ble facts : and so demonstrable is the truth of this belief, that if
no such belief had existed, the persons who now controvert it,
would have been the persons who would have produced and
propagated it, because, by beginning to reason they would have
been led on to reason progressively to the end, and thereby have
discovered that matter and all the properties it has, will not ac-
count for the system of the universe, and that there must neces-
sarily be a superior cause.

It was t^he excess to which imaginary systems of religion had
been carried, and the intolerance, persecutions, burnings, and
massacres, they occasioned, that first induced certain persons to
propagate infidelity ; thinking, that upon the whole it was better
not to believe at all, than to believe a multitude of things and
complicated creeds, that occasioned so much mischief in the
world. But those days are past ; persecution has ceased, and

190 DISCOURSE, &.C.

he antidote then set up against it has no longer even the shadow
of an apology. We profess and we proclaim in peace, the pure,
unmixed, comfortable, and rational belief of a God, as manifested
to us in the universe. We do this without any apprehension of
that belief being made a cause of persecution, as other beliefs
have been, or of suffering persecution ourselves. To God, and
not to man, are all men to account for their belief.

It has been well observed at the first institution of this society,
that the dogmas it professes to believe, are from the commence-
ment of the world ; that they are novelties, but are confessedly
the basis of all systems of religion, however numerous and con-
tradictory they may be. All men in the outset of the religion
they profess are Theophilanthropists. It is impossible to form any
system of religion without building upon those principles, and
therefore they are not sectarian principles, unless we suppose
a sect composed of all the world.

I have said in the course of this discourse, that the study of
natural philosophy is a divine study, because it is the study of
the works of God in the Creation. If we consider theology upon
this ground, what an extensive field of improvement in things
both divine and human opens itself before us. Ail the princi-
ples of science are of divine origin. It was not man that invent-
ed the principles on which astronomy, and every branch of
mathematics are founded and studied. It was not man that gave
properties to the circle and triangle. Those principles are eter-
nal and immutable. We see in them the unchangeable nature
of the Divinity. We see in them immortality, and immortality
existing after the material figures that express those properties
are dissolved in dust.

Tiie society is at present in its infancy, and its means are
small ; but I wish to hold in view the subject I allude to, and ia-
stead of teaching the philosopl^cal branches of learning as or-
namental accomplishments only, as they have hitherto been
taught, to teach them in a manner that shall combine theological
knowledge with scientific instruction ; to do this to the best ad-
vantage, some instruments will be necessary for the purpose of
explanation, of which the society is not yet possessed. But as the
views of the society extend to pul)lic good, as well as to that of
the individual, and as its principles can have no enemies, means
may be devised to procure them.

If we unite to the present instruction, a series of lectures on
the ground I have mentioned, we shall, in the first place, render
theology the most delightful and entertaining of all studies. In
the next place, we shall give scientific instruction to those who
could not otherwise obtain it. The mechanic of every profession
will there be taught the mathematical principles necessary to
render him a proficient in his art. The cultivator will there see
developed, the princi|)k's of vegetation ; while, at the same time,
they will be led to sec the hand of God in all these tliin^^-

LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN,

ONE OF THE COUNCIL OF FIVE HUNDRED,

OCCASIONED BY HIS REPORT ON THE PRIESTS, PUBLIC WOR-
SHIP, AND THE BELLS.

Citizen Repuesentative,

AS every thing in your report, relating to what you call wor-
ship, connects itself with the books called the Scriptures, I begin
with a quotation therefrom. It may serve to give us some idea
of the fanciful origin and fabrication of those books. 2 Chroni-
cles, chap, xxxiv. ver. 14, &c. "Hilkiah, the priest, /owntZ the
book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And Hilkiah, the
priest, said to Shaphan, the scribe, I have found the book of the
law in the house of the Lord, and Hilkiah delivered the book to
Shaphan. And Shaphan, the scribe, told the king (Josiah) say-
ing, Hilkiah, the priest, hath given me a book."

This pretended finding was about a thousand years after the
time that Moses is said to have lived. Before this pretended find-
ing there was no such thing practised or known in the world as
that which is called the law of Moses. This being the case, there
is every apparent evidence, that the books called the books of
Moses (and which make the first part of what are called the Scrip-
tures) are forgeries contrived between a priest and a limb of the
law,* Hilkiah, and Shaphan, the scribe, a thousand years after
Moses is said to have been dead.

Thus much for the first part of 1^ Bible. Every other part is
marked with circumstances equally as suspicious. We ought,
therefore, to be reverentially careful how we ascribe books as his
word, of which there is no evidence, and against which there is
abundant evidence to the contrary, and every cause to suspect im-
position.

In your report you speak continually of something by the name
of worship, and you confine yourself to speak of one kind only,
as if there were but one, and that one was unquestionably true

The modes of worship are as various as the sects are numer-
ous ; and amidst all this variety and multiplicity there is but one
article of belief in which every religion in the world agrees.
That article has universal sanction. It is the belief of a God, or
what the Greeks described by the word Theism, and the Latins
by that of Deism. Upon this one article have been erected all

* It happens that Camille Jordan is a limb of the law.

192 LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN.

the different superstructures of creeds and ceremonies continu-
ally warring with each other that now exists or ever existed.
But the men most and best informed upon the subject of theolo-
gy rest themselves upon this universal article, and hold all the
various superstructures erected thereon to be at least doubtful,
if not altogether artificial.

The intellectual part of religion is a private affair between
every man and his Maker, and in which no third party has any
right to interfere. The practical part consists in our doing good
to each other. But since religion has been made into a trade,
the practical part has been made to consist of ceremonies perform-
ed by men called Priests ; and the people have been amused
with ceremonial shows, processions, and bells.* By devices of
this kind true religion has been banished ; and such means have
been found out to extract money even from the pockets of the
poor, instead of contributing to their relief.

* The precise date of the invention of bells cannot be traced. The ancients, it ap-
pears from Martial, Juvenal, Siifitonius and others, had an article named tintinuabula,
(usually translated bell,) by which the Romans were summoned to tlieir baths and pub-
lic places. It seems most probable, that the description of bells now' used in churches,
were invented about the year 400, and generally adopted licfore the commence-
ment of the seventh century. Previoiw to their invention, however, soundinjj brass,
and sometimes basins, were used ; and to tlie present day tlie Greek churcli have
boards, or iron plates, full of holes, which they strike with a hummer, or mallet, to
Bummon the priests and others to divine service. We may also remark, that in our
own country, it was the custom in monasteries to visit every person's cell early in the
morning, and knock on the door with a similar instrument, called the wakening mal-
let— doubtless no very pleasing intrusion on the sluml>ers of the Monks.

But, the use of bells, having been established, it was fouml that devils were ter-
rified at the sound, and slunk in haste away ; in conseiiuence of which it was tliought
necessary to baptize Uiem in a solenni manner, which appears to have been first done
by Po(>e John XII. A. D. 968. A record of tliis practice still exists in the Tom of
Lincoln, and the great Tom at Oxford, &c.

Having thus laid the foundation of superstitious veneration in the hearts of the com-
mon people, it cannot be a matter of surjirise, that they were soon used at rejoicings,
and high festivals in the church (for the j^-pope of driving away any evil spirit which
might Ije in tlie ncighlxjurhood,) as well as on tlie arrival of any great personage,
on which occasion the usual fee was one penny.

One other custom remains to be explained, viz. tolling bells on the occasion of any
per.s<m's death, a custom wliich, in the manner now practised, is totally tliflerent from
its original institution. It appears to have Ijcen used as early as the 7lli century,
when Ih'IIs were first gonerallv used, and to have been deuomiuated the soul bell, (as
it signified the departing of the soul,) as also, the passing bell. Thus W'heatly tells
US, "Our church, in imitation of the Saints of former ages, calls in the Minister and
others who are at hand, to assist thc'ir brother in his last extreniilv ; in order to this,
she directs a bell shoulil be tolled when any one is paxfinf; out of iliis life." Diirand
also says — " When any one is (/(/'"A') ''<'"^ must U: lolltMl, that the people may put
lip their prayers for him ; let this Ix; done twice for a woman, ami tluice for a man.
If for a clergvman, as manv times a.« he had orders ; and at the conclusion, a peal
on all the bells, to distinguish the quality of the person for whom the people are to put
up their prayers." — From these pa.ssages it appe.irs evident that the l)ell was to be
tolleil brfore a (x;rson's decease rather than after, as at th<> present day ; and that
the object was to obtain the [irayeis of all who li»>ard it, for the re[>ose of the soul of
their ilepartiiig neighbour. .At first, when the tolling took place after the person'i
decease, it was deemed superstitious, and was partially disused, which was found ma-
terially to affect the revemie of the church. The priesthood having removed the ob-
jeeiioii, l/clls were again tolled, upon ])aymcnt of the customary fees. Editor

LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 193

No man ought to make a living by religion. It is dishonest so
to do. Religion is not an act that can be performed by proxy.
One person cannot act religion for another. Every person must
perform it for himself : and all that a priest can do is to take
from him, he wants nothing but his money, and then to riot on
his spoil and laugh at his credulity.

The only people, as a professional sect of Christians, who pro-
vide for the poor of their society, are people known by the name
of Quakers. Those men have no priests. They assemble quiet-
ly in their places of meetings and do not disturb their neighbours
with shows and noise of bells. Religion does not unite itself to
show and noise. True religion is without either. Where there
is both there is no true religion.

The first object for inquiry in all cases, more especially in
matters of religious concern, is TRUTH. We ought to inquire
into the truth of whatever we are taught to believe, and is it cer-
tain that the books called the Scriptures stand, in this respect,
in more than a doubtful predicament. They have been held in
exister>ce, and in a sort of credit among the common class of
people, by art, terror and persecution. They have little or no
credit among the er'ightened part, but they have been made the
means of encumbering the world with a numerous priesthood,
who have fattened on the labour of the people, and consumed the
sustenance that ought to be applied to the widows and the poor.

It is a want of feeling to talk of priests and bells whilst so many
infants are perishing in the hospitals, and aged and infirm poor
in the streets, ffom the want of necessaries. The abundance
that France produces is sufficient for every want, if rightly ap-
plied ; but priests and bells, like articles of luxury, ought to be
the least articles of consideration.

We talk of religion. Let us talk of truth ; for that which is
not truth, is not worthy the name of religion.

W^e see difierent parts of the world overspread with different
books, each of which, though contradictory to the other, is said,
by its partisans, to be of divine origin, and is made a rule of faith
and practice. In countries under despotic governments, where
inquiry is always forbidden, the people are condemned to believe
as they have been taught by their priests. This was for many
centuries the case in France ; but this Unk in the chain of slav-
ery is happily broken by the revolution ; and, that it may never
be rivctted again, let us employ a part of the liberty we enjoy in
scrutinizing into the truth. Let us leave behind us some monu-
ment, that we have made the cause and honour of our Creator
an object of our care. If we have been imposed upon by the
terrors of government and the artifice of priests in matters of re-
ligion, let us do justice to our Creator by examining into the case.
Ilia name is too sacred to be affixed to any thing which is fabu-

17

194 LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN

lous ; and it is our duty to inquire whether we believe, or en-
courage the people to beUeve, in fables or in facts.

It would be a project worthy the situation we are in, to invite
an inquiry of this kind. ^\e have committees for various ob-
jects ; and, among others, a committee for bells. We have in-
stitutions, academies, and societies for various purposes ; but we
have none for inquiring into historical truth in matters of religious
concern.

They show us certain books which they call the Holy Scrip-
tures, the word of God, and other names of that kind ; but we
ougiit to know what evidence there is for our beheving them to be
so, and at what time they originated, and in what manner. We
know that men could make books, and we know that artifice and
superstition could give them a name ; could call them sacred.
But we ought to be careful that the name of our Creator be not
abused. Let then all the evidence with respect to those books
be made a sul))ect of inquiry. If there be evidence to war-
rant our belief of them, let us encourage the propagation of it ;
but if not, let us be careful not to promote the cause of delusion
and falsehood.

I have already spoken of the Quakers — that they have no
priests, no bells — and that they are remarkable for tiicir care of
the poor of their society. They are equally as remarkable for
the education of their children. I am a descendant of a family
of that profession ; my father was a Quaker ; and I presume I
may be admitted an evidence of v.hat I assert. The seeds of
good principles, and the literary means of advancement in tlio
world, are laid in early life. Instead, therefore, of consuming
the substance of the nation upon priests, whose life at best is a
lile of idleness, let us think of [>roviding for the education of those
who have not the means of doing it themselves. One good
school-master is of more use than a hundred priests.

If we look back at what was the condition of France under the
ancient regime, we cannot acquit the priests of corrupting the
morals of the nation. Their ])retended celibacy led them to car-
ry debauchery and domestic infidelity into every family where
they could gain admission ; and their blasphemous pretensions
to Ibrgive sins, encouraged the commission of them. Why has
the Revolution of France been stained with crimes which the
Revolution of the United States of America was not } Men are
physically the same in all countries: it is education that
makes them different. Accustom a people to believe that priests,
or any other class of men, can forgive sins, and you will have
sins in abundance.

I come now to speak more particularly to the object of your
report.

You claim a privilege incompatible with the constitution and
with rights. The constitution protects equally, as it ought to do,

LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 195

every professiott of religioa*; it gives no exclusive privilege to
any. The churches are the common property of all tlie people ;
they are national goods, and cannot be given exclusively to finy
one profession, because the right does not exist of giving to any
one that which appertains to all. It would be consistent with
right that the churches be sold, and the money arising thercQ-om
be invested as a fund for the education of children of poor parents
of every profession, and, if more than sufficient for this purpose,
that the surplus be appropriated to the support of the aged poor.
After this, every profession can erect its own place of worship,
if it choose — support its own priests, if it choose to have any — or
perform its worship without priests, as the Quakers do.

As to bells, they are a public nuisance. If one profession is
to have bells, another has the right to use the instruments of the
same kind, or any other noisy instrument. Some may choose
to meet at the sound of cannon, another at the beat of drum, an-
other at the sound of trumpets, and so on, until the whole be-
comes a scene of general confusion. But if we permit ourselves
to think of the state of the sick, and the many sleepless nights
and days they undergo, we shall feel the impropriety of uicreas-
ing their distress by the noise of bells, or any other noisy in-
struments.

Quiet and private domestic devotion neither offends nor in-
commodes any body ; and the constitution has wisely guarded
against the use of externals. Bells come under this description,
and public procession still more so — Streets and highways are
for the accommodation of persons following their several occu-
paUons, and no sectary has a right to incommode them — If any
one has, every other has the same ; and the meeting of various
and contradictory processions would be tumultuous. Those who
formed the constitution had wisely reflected upon these cases :
and, whilst they were careful to preserve the equal right of every
one, they restrained every one from giving offence, or incommod-
ing another.

Men who, through a long and tumultuous scene have lived in
retirement, as you have done, may think, when they arrive at
power, that nothing is more easy than to put the world to rights
in an instant ; they form to themselves gay ideas at the success
of their projects ; but they forget to contemp]a4;e the difficulties
that attend them, and the dangers witli Avhich they are pregnant.
Alas ! nothing is sq_ easy as to deceive one's self. Did all men
think as you think, or as you say, your plan would need no ad-
vocate, because it would have no opposer ; but there are millions
who think differently to you, and who are determined to be
neither the dupes nor the slaves of error or design.

It is your good Ibrtune to arrive at power, wlien the sunshine
of prosperity is breathing forth after a long and stormy night.
The firmness of your colleagues, and of those you have succeed-

196 LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN.

ed — the unabated energy of the Directory, and the unequalled
bravery of the armies of the Republic, have made the way smooth
and easy to you. If you look back at the ditficulties that existed
when the constitution commenced, you cannot but be confound-
ed with admiration at the difference between that time and now.
At that moment, the Directory were placed like the furlorn hope
of an army, but you were in safe retirement. Tlrey occupied
the post of honourable danger, and they have merited well of
their country.

You talk of justice and benevolence, but you begin at the
wrong end. The defenders of your country, and the deplorable
state of the poor, are objects of prior consideration to priests and
bells and gaudy processions.

You talk of peace, but your manner of talking of it embarras-
ses the Directory in making it, and serves to prevent it. Had
you been an actor in all the scenes of government from its com-
mencement, you would have been too well informed to have
brought forward projects that operate to encourage the enemy.
When you arrived at a share in the government, you found every
thing tending to a prosperous issue. A series of victories un-
equalled in the world, and in the obtaining of which you had no
share, preceded your arrival. Every enemy but one was sub-
dued ; and that one (the Hanoverian government of England)
deprived of every hope, and a bankrupt in all its resources, was
suing for peace. In such a state of things, no new question that
might tend to agitate and anarchize the interior, ought to have
had place ; and the project you propose, tends directly to that end.

Whilst France was a monarchy, and under the government of
those things called kings and priests, England could always de-
feat her ; but since France has RISEN TO BE A REPUBLIC,
the Government of England crouches beneath her, so great
is the difference between a government of kings and priests, and
that which is founded on the system of representation But,
could the government of England find a way, under the sanction
of your report, to inundate France witli a flood of emigrant
priests, she would find also the way to domineer a*5 l)efore ; she
would retrieve her shattered finances at your expence, and the
ringing of bells would be the tocsin of your downt;ill.

Did peace consist in notliing but the cessation of war, it would
not be difficult ; but the terms are yet to be arranged ; and those
terms will be better or worse, in proportion as France and her
councils be united or divided. That the government of England
counts much upon your report, and upon others of a similar ten-
dency, is what the writer of this letter, who knows tliat govern-
ment well, has no doubt. You are but new on the theatre of
government, and you ought to suspect yourself of misjudging ;
the experience of those who have gone before you, should be of
gome service to you.

LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN, 197

But if, in consequence of such measures as you propose, you
put it out of the power of the Directory to make a good peace,
and to accept of terms you would afterwards reprobate, it is your-
selves that must bear the censure.

You conclude your report by the following address to your
colleagues : —

" Let us hasten, representatives of the people ! to affix to these
tutelary laws the seal of our unanimous approbation. All our
fellow-citizens will learn to cherish political liberty from the en-
joyment of religious liberty : you will have broken the most
powerful arm of your enemies ; you will have surrounded this
assembly with the most impregnant rampart — confidence, and
the people's love. O ! my c<.-lleagues ! how desirable is that
popularity which is the offspring of good laws ! What a conso-
lation it will be to us hereafter, when returned to our own fire-
sides, to hear from the mouths of our fellow-citizens, these sim-
ple expressions — Blessings reward you, men of peace ! you have
restored to ?(S our temples — our ministei^s — the liberty nf adoring the
God of our fathers : you have recalled harmonij to our families —
morality to our hearts : you hate made us adore the legislature and
respect all its laws .'"

Is it possible, citizen representative, that you can be serious in
this address ? Were the lives of the priests under the ancient
regime such as to justify any thing you say of them ? Were
not all France convinced of their immorality? Were they not
considered as the patrons of debauchery and domestic infidelity,
and not as the patrons of morals } What was their pretended
celibacy but perpetual adultery ? What was their blasphemous
pretensions to forgive sins, but an encouragement to the com-
mission of them, and a love for their own ? Do you want to lead
again into France all the vices of which they have been the
patrons, and to overspread the republic with English pensioners!
It is cheaper to corrupt than to conquer ; and the English gov-
ernment, unable to conquer, will stoop to corrupt. Arrogance
and meanness, though in appearance opposite, are vices of the
same heart.

Instead of concluding in the manner you have done, you ought
rather to have said,

" O ! my colleagues ! we are ari'ived at a glorious period — a
period that promises more than we could have expected, and all
that we could have wished. Let us hasten to take into consider-
ation the honours and rewards due to our brave defenders.
Let us hasten to give encouragement to agriculture and manu-
factures, that commerce may reinstate itself, and our people
have employment. Let us review the condition of the suffering
poor, and wipe from our country the reproach of forgetting
them. Let us devise means to establish schools of instruc-
tion, that we may banish the ignorance that tlife ancient regime

17*

198 LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN.

of kings and priests had spread among the people. — Let us pro-
pagate morahty, unfettered by superstition — Let us cultivate jus-
tice and benevolence, that the God of our fathers may bless us.
The helpless infant and the aged poor cry to us to remember
them — Let not wretchedness be seen in our streets — Let France
exhibit to the world the glorious example of expelling ignorance
and misery together.

" Let these, my virtuous colleagues ! be the subject of our care,
that, when we return among our fellow-citizens, they may say,
Worthy represcnlativcs ! you have done ivell. You have done jus-
tice and hoiwicr to our brave defenders. You have encouraged agri-
cultxire — cherished our decayed manufactures — given new life to
commerce, and employment to our people. You have removed from
our country the reproach of forgetting the poor — You have caused
the cry of the orphan to cease — You have wiped the tear from the eye
of the suffering mother — You have given comfort to the aged and in-
firm— You have penetrated into the gloomy recesses of wretchedness,
and have banished it. Welcome among us, ye brave and virtuous
representatives ! and may your example hefolloived by your success^
ars /"

THOMAS PAINE.

Paits, 1797

AN

OF THE

PASSAGES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT,

QUOTED FROBI THE OLD

AND CALLED

PROPHECIES CONCERNING JESUS CHRIST

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED,

AIV ESSAY OJV DREAM.

ALSO,

AN APPENDIX,

CONTAINING THE

CONTRADICTORY DOCTRINES BETWEEN MATTHEW AND MARK;

AND MY

PRIVATE THOUGHTS OJVA FUTURE STATE.

PREFACE.

TO THE MINISTERS AND PREACHERS OF ALL DENOMINATIONS

OF RELIGION.

It is the duty of every man, as far as his abiHty extends, to
detect and expose delusion and error. But nature has not given
to every one a talent for the purpose ; and among those to whom
such a talent is given, there is ot\en a want of disposition or of
courage to do it.

The world, or more properly speaking, that small part of it
called Christendom, or the Christian World, has been amused for
more than a thousand years Avith accounts of Prophecies in the
Old Testament, about the coming of the person called Jesus
Christ, and thousands of sermons have been preached, and vol-
umes written, to ntake man believe it.

In the following treatise I have examined all the passages in
the IN'ew Testament, quoted from the Old, and called prophecies
concerning Jesus Christ, and I find no such thing as a prophecy
of any such person, and I deny there are any. The passages all
relate to circumstances the Jewish nation was in at the time they
were written or spoken, and not to any thing that was or was not
to happen in the world several hundred years afterwards ; and I
have shown what the circumstances were, to which the passages
apply or refer. I have given chapter and verse for every thing
I have said, and have not gone out of the books of the Old and
New Testament for evidence that the passages are not prophe-
cies of the person called Jesus Christ.

The prejudice of unfounded belief, often degenerates into the
prejudice of custom, and becomes, at last, rank hypocrisy. —
When men, from custom or fashion, or any worldly motive, pro-
fess or pretend to believe what they do not believe, nor can give
any reason for believing, they unship the helm of their morality ;
and being no longer honest to their own minds, they feel no mo-
ral difhculty in being unjust to others. It is from the influence
of this vice, hypocrisy, that we see so many Church and Meet-
ing-going professors and pretenders to religion, so full of trick
and deceit in their dealings, and so loose in the performance of
their engagements, that they are not to be trusted farther than
the laws of the country will bind them. Morality has no hold
on their minds, no restraint on their actions.

202

PREFACE.

One set of preachers make salvation to consist in beiieving.
They tell their congregations, that if they believe in Christ, their
sins shall be forgiven. This, in the first place, is an encourage-
ment to sin, in a similar manner as when a prodigal young fellow
is told his father will pay all his debts, he runs into debt the fast-
er, and becomes the more extravagant : Daddy, says he, pays all,
and on he goes. Just so in the other case, Chnst pmjs all, and
on goes the sinner.

In the ne.xt place, the doctrine these men preach is not true.
The New Testament rests itself for credibility and testimony on
what are called prophecies in the Old Testament, of the person
called Jesus Christ ; and if there are no such thing as prophe-
cies of any such person in the Old Testament, the'^New Testa-
ment is a forgery of the councils of Nice and Lasdocia, and the
faith founded thereon, delusion and falsehood.*

Another set of preachers tell their congregations that God
predestinated and selected from all eternity, a certain number to
be saved, and a certain number to be damned eternally. If this
were true, the day of Judgment is past : their preaching is in vain,
and they had better work at some useful calling for "their liveli-
hood.

This doctrine, also, like the former, hath a direct tendency to
demoralize mankind. Can a bad man be roformed by telling him,
that if he is one of those who was decreed to be damned before
he was born, his reformation will do him no good ; and if he was
decreed to be saved, he will be saved whether he believes it or
not ; for this is the result of the doctrine. Such preaching and
such preachers do injury to the moral world. They had better
be at the plough.

As in my political works my motive and object have been to
give man an elevated sense of his own character, and free him
from the slavisli and superstitious absurdity of monarchy and he-
reditary government, so in my publications on religious subjects
my endeavours have been directed to bring man to a right use of
the reason that God has given him ; to impress on him the great
principles of divine morality, justice, mercy, and a benevolent
disposition to all men, and to all creatures, and to inspire in him
a spirit of trust, confidence and consolation in his Creator, un-
shackled by the fables of books pretending to be the word cf God.

THOMAS PAINE.

* The councils of Nice and Laodocia were iicid about 350 years after die time
Christ is said to have lived ; and the books that now compose the Xew Testament,
were d>en voted for by yeas and nays, .is we now vole ii law. A ^reat many that
were offered had a majority of nays, ami were rejected. This Is tTie way the New
Tc-^lament came into beina.

AJV ESSAY ON DREAM.

AS a great deal is said in the New Testament about dreams, it
is first necessary to explain the nature of dream, and to show by
what operation of the mind a dream is produced during sleep.
When this is understood we shall be the better enabled to judge
whether any reliance can be placed upon them; and consequently,
whether the several matters in the New Testament related of
dreams deserve the credit which the writers of that book and
priests and commentators ascribe to them.

In order to understand the nature of dreams, or of that which
passes in ideal vision during a state of sleep, it is first necessary
to understand the composition and decomposition of the human
mind.

The three great faculties of the mind are Imagination, Judg-
ment, and Memory. Every action of the mind comes under one
or other of these faculties. In a state of wakefulness, as in the
day-time, these three faculties are all active ; but that is seldom
the case in sleep, and never perfectly; and this is the cause that
our dreams are net so regular and rational as our waking
thoughts.

The seat of that collection of powers or faculties, that consti-
tute what is called the mind, is in the brain. There is not, and
cannot be, any visible demonstration of this anatomically, but ac-
cidents happening to living persons, show it to be so. An injury
done to the brain by a fracture of the skull will sometimes change
a wise man into a childish idiot ; a being without mind. But so
careful has nature been of that sanctum sanctorum of man, the
brain, that of all the external accidents to which humanity is sub-
ject, this happens the most seldom. But we often see it happen-
ing by long and habitual intemperance.

Whether those three faculties occupy distinct apartments of the
brain, is known only to that Almighty power that formed and
organized it. We can see the external effects of muscular mo-
tion in all the members of the body, though its prhmim tnohile, or
first moving cause, is unknown to man. Our external motions
are sometimes the effect of intention, and sometimes not. If we
are sitting and intend to rise, or standing and intend to sit, or to
walk, the limbs obey that intention as if they heard the order
given. But we make a thousand motions every day, and that as
well v.aking as sleeping, that have no prior intention to direct

204 AN ESSAY ON DREAM.

them Each member acts as if it had a will or mind of its own
Man governs the whole when he pleases to govern, but in the
interims the several parts, like little suburbs, govern themselves
without consulting the sovereign.

But all these motions, whatever be the generating cause, are
external and visible. But with respect to the brain, no ocular
observation can be made upon it. All is mystery ; all is darkness
in that womb of thought.

Whether the brain is a mass of matter in continual rest ; whe-
ther it has a vibrating pulsative motion, or a heaving and falling
motion, like matter in fermentation ; whether different parts of
the brain have different motions according to the faculty that is
employed, be it the imagination, the judgment, or the memory,
man knows nothing of it. He knows not the cause of his own
wit. His own braui conceals it from him.

Comparing invisible by visible things, as metaphysical can
sometimes be compared to physical things, the operations of those
distinct and several faculties have some resemblance to the me-
chanism of a watch. The main spring which puts all in motion,
corresponds to the imagination ; the pendulum or balance, which
corrects and regulates that motion, corresponds to the judgment ;
and the hand and dial, like the memory, record the operations.

Now in proportion as these several faculties sleep, slumber, or
keep awake, during the continuance of a dream, in that propor-
tion the dream will be reasonable or frantic, remembered or for-
gotten.

If there is any faculty in mental man thaf never sleeps, it is
that volatile thin<; the imagination: the case is different with the
judgment and memory. The sedate and sober constitution of
the judgment easily disposes it to rest ; and as to the memory,
it records in silence, and is active only when it is called upon.

That the judgment soon goes to sleep may be perceived by our
sometimes beginning to dream before we are fully asleep our-
selves. Some random thougiit runs in the mind, and wc start, as
it were, into recollection that wc are dreaming between sleeping
and waking.

If the judgment sleeps whilst the imagination keeps awake, the
dream will bo a riotous assemblage of mis-sha|ien images and
rantuig ideas, and the more active the imagination is, the wilder
the dream will be. The most inconsistent and the most impossi-
ble things will appear right ; because that faculty, whose prov-
ince it is to keep order, is in a state of absence. The ma.ster of
the school is gone out, and the boys are in an uproar.

If the memory sleeps, we shall have no other knowledge of the
dream than that we have dreamt, without knowing what it was
about. In this case it is sensation, rather than recollection, that
acts. The dream has given us some sense of pain or trouble, and
we feel it as a hurt, rather than remember it as a vision.

AN ESSAY O.V DREAM. 205

If memory only slumbers, we shall have a faint remembrance
of the dream, and after a few minutes it will sometimes happen
that the principal passages of the dream will occur to us more
fully. The cause of this is, that the memory will sometimes
continue slumbering or sleeping after we are awake ourselves,
and that so fully, that it may, and sometimes does happen,
that we do not immediately recollect where we are, nor what we
have been about, or have to do. But when the memory starts
into wakefulness, it brings the knowledge of those things back
upon us, like a flood of light, and sometimes the dream with it.

But the most curious circumstance of the mind in a state of
dream, is the power it has to become the agent of every person,
character and thing, of which it dreams. It carries on conver-
sation with several, asks questions, hears answers, gives and re-
ceives information, and it acts all these parts itself

But however various and eccentric the imagination may be in
the creation of images and ideas, it cannot supply tl\p place of
memory, with respect to things that are forgotten when we are
awake. For example, if we have forgotten the name of a per
son, and dream of seeing him and asking him his name, he can-
not tell it ; for it is ourselves asking ourselves the question.

But though the imagination cannot supply the place of real
memory, it has the wild faculty of counterfeiting memory. It
dreams of persons it never knew, and talks with them as if it re-
membered them as old acquaintances. It relates circumstances
that never happened, and tells them as if they had happened. It
goes to places that never existed, and knows where all the streets
and houses are, as if it had been there before. The scenes it cre-
ates often appear as scenes remembered. It will sometimes act
a dream within a dream, and, in the delusion of dreaming, tell a
dream it never dreamed, and tell it as if it was from memory. It
may also be remarked, that the imagination in a dream, has no
idea of time, as t'une. It counts only by circumstances ; and if a
successioa of circumstances pass in a dream that would require
a great length oi time to accomplish them, it will appear to the
dreamer that a length of time equal thereto has passed also.

As this is the state of the mind in dream, it may rationally be
said that every person is mad once in twenty-four hours, for were
he to act in the day as he dreams in the night, he would be con-
lined for a lunatic. In a state of wakefulness, those three facul-
ties being all alive, and acting in union, constitute the rational
man. In dreams it is otherwise, and therefore that state which
is called insanity, appears to be no other than a disunion of those
faculties, and a cessation of the judgment, during wakefulness,
that WG so often experience during sleep ; and idiocity, into
which some persons have fallen, is that cessation of all the facul-
ties of which we can be sensible, when we happen to wake befjre
our memory,

18

206 AN ESSAY 0>r DREAM.

In this view of the mind, how absurd is it to place reliance
upon dreams, and how much more absurd to make them a foun-
dation for religion; yet the belief that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God, begotten by the Holy Ghost, a being never heard of be-
fore, stands on the story of an old man's dream. " And behold
the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dreavi, saying, Joseph,
thou son of Daind, fear not thou to take unto thee Mary thy wife,
for that lohich is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." — Matt,
ch. i. ver. 20.

After this we have the childish stories of three or four other
dreams; about Joseph going into Egypt ; about his coming back
again ; about this, and about that, and this story of dreams has
thrown Europe into a dream for more than a thousand years. All
the efforts that nature, reason, and conscience have made to
awaken man from it, have been ascribed by priestcraft and su-
perstition to the workings of the devil, and had it not been for the
American revolution, which by establishing the universal right of
conscience, first opened the way to free discussion, and for the
French revolution which followed, this religion of dreams had
continued to be preached, and that after it had ceased to be be-
lieved. Those who preached it and did not believe it, s-till be-
lieved the delusion necessary. They were not bold enough to
be honest, nor honest enough to be bold.

[Every new religion, like a new play, requires a new appara-
tus of dresses and machinery, to fit tlie new characters it creates.
The story of Christ in the New Testament brings a new being
upon the stage, which it calls the Holy Ghost ; and the story of
Abraham, the fatlier of the Jews, in the Old Testament, gives
existence to a new order of beings it calls Angels. — There was
no Holy Ghost before the time of Christ, nor Angels before the
time of Abraham. — We hear nothing of these winged gentlemen,
till more than two thousand years, according to the Bible chron-
ology, from the time they say the heavens, the earth, and all
therein were made: — After this, they hop about as thick as birds
in a grove: — The first we hear of pays his addresses to Hagar
in the wilderness; then three of them visit Sarah; another wres-
tles a fall with Jacob ; and tliese birds of passatre having found
their way to earth and back, are continually comin<T and goino^.
They eat and drink, and up again to heaven. — What they do
with the food they carry away, the Bible does not tell us. — Per-
haps they do as the birds do. ******

One would think that a system loaded with such gross and vul-
gar absurdities as scripture religion is, could never have obtained
credit ; yet we have seen what priestcraft and fanaticism could
do, and credulity believe.

From angels in the Old Testament, we get to prophets, to
witches, to seers of visions, and dreamers of dreams, and some-
times we are told, as in 2 Sam. chap. ix. ver. 15, that God whis-

AN ESSAY ON DREAM. 207

pers in the ear — At other times we are not told how the impulse
was given, or whether sleeping or waking — In 2 Sam. chap. xxiv.
ver. 1, it is said, " ^»m/ agahi the anger of the Lord loas kindled
against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, go number
Israel and Jiidah.''^ — And in 1 Chro. chap. .\.\i. vcr. 1, when the
same story is again related, it is said, ' ujiti Salaii stood up against
Israel, and moved David to number Israel.''''

Whetlicr this was done sleeping or waking, we are not told,
but it seems that David, whom they call "a man after God's own
heart," did not know by what spirit he was moved ; and as to
the men called inspired penmen, they agree so well about the
matter, that in one book they say that it was God, and in the
other that it was the Devil.

The idea that writers otthe Old Testament had of a God was
boisterous, contemptible and vulgar. — They make him the Mars
of the Jews, the fighting God of Israel, the conjuring God of
their Priests and Prophets. — They tell as many fables of him as
the Greeks told of Hercules. ******

They make their God to say exultingly, "/ ivill get me honour
upon Fharaoh, and upon his Host, upon his Chariots and upon his
Horsemen.'''' — And that he may keep his word, they make him set
a trap in the Red Sea, in the dead of the night, for Pharaoh, his
host, and his horses, and drown them as a rat-catcher would do
so many rats — Great honour indeed! the story of Jack the Giant-
killer is better told !

They pit him against the Egyptian magicians to conjure with
him ; the three first essays are a dead match — Each party turns
his rod into a serpent, the rivers into blood, and creates frogs; but
upon the fourth, the God of the Israelits obtains the laurel, he
covers them all over with lice! — The Egyptian magicians cannot
do the same, and this lousy triumph proclaims the victory !

They make their God to rain fire and brimstone upon Sodom
and Gomorrah, and belch fire and smoke upon mount Sinai, as
if he was the Pluto of the lower regions. They make him salt
up Lot's wife like pickled pork ; they make him pass like Shak-
speare's Queen Mab into the brain of their priests, prophets, and
propheteses, and tickle them into dreams, and after making him
play all kind of tricks, they confound him with Satan, and leave
us at a loss to know what God they meant !

This is the descriptive God of the Old Testament ; and as to
the New, though the authors of it have varied the scene, they
have continued the vulgarity.

Is man ever to be the dupe of priestcraft, the slave of supersti-
tion? Is he never to have just ideas of his Creator.'' It is better
not to believe there is a God, than to believe of him falsely.
When we behold the mighty universe that surrounds us, and dart
our contemplation into the eternity of space, filled with innumer-
able orbs, revolving in eternal harmony, how paltry must the

208 AN ESSAY ON DREAM.

tales of the Old and New Testaments, profanely called the word
of God, appear to thoughtful man ! The stupendous wisdom,
and unerring order, that reign and govern throughout this won-
drous whole, and call us to reflection, put to shame the Bible ! —
The God of eternity, and of all that is real, is not the God of pass-
ing dreams, and shadows of man's imagination ! The God of
truth, is not the God of fable ; the belief of a God begotten and

a God crucified, is a God blasphemed It is making a profane

use of reason.]*

I shall conclude this Essay on Dream with the two first rersea
of the 34th chapter of Ecclesiasticus, one of the books of the
Apocrypha.

" 2%e hopes of a Jiuin void of undcrsUindin^ arc vala and false
and dreams lift up fools — Wlioso regardclh dreams is lilie him that
catcheth at a shadow, ami followcth after the ivind.''^

I now proceed to an examination of the passages in the liible,
called prophecies of the coming of Christ, and to show there are
no prophecies of any such person. That the passages clandes-
tinely styled prophecies are not prophecies, and that they refer
to circumstances the Jewish nation was in at the time they were
written or spoken, and not to any distance of future time or per-
son.

* Mr. Paine must have been in an ill humour when he wrote the passage inclosed in
crotchets; and probably on reviewing it, and discovering exceptionable clauses, \»as
induced to reject the whole, as it does not appear in the edition published by himself.
But having obtained the original in the hand writing of Mr. P. and deeming some of
the remarks worthy of bei ng preserved, I have thought proper to restore the passage,
with die exception of the objectionable pai'ts. — Editor.

AN

EXAMIJVATIO:^^

OF THE

PASSAGES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT,

QUOTED FROM THE OLD, AND CALLED PROPHECIES OF THE COMIHG OF

JESUS CHRIST.

[This work was first published by Mr. Paine, at New-York, in
1807, and was the last of his writings edited by himself. It is
evidently extracted from his answer to the bishop of Llandaff, or
from his third part of the Age of Reason, both of which, it ap-
pears by his will, he left in manuscript. The term, *' The Bish-
op,^^ occurs in this examination six times without designating what
bishop is meant. Of all the replies to his second part of the Age
of Reason, that of bishop Watson was the only one to which he
paid particular attention ; and he is, no doubt, the person here
alluded to. Bishop Watson's apology for the Bible had been
pubhshed some years before Mr. P. left France, and the latter
composed his answer to it, and also his third part of the Age of
Reason, while in that country.

When Mr. Paine arrived in America, and found that liberal
opinions on religion were in disrepute, through the influence of
hypocrisy and superstition, he declined publishing the entire of
the works which he had prepared ; observing that " an author
might lose the credit he had acquired by writing too much." He
however gave to the public the examination before us, in a pam-
phlet form. But the apathy whicn appeared to prevail at that
time in regard to religious inquiry, fully determined him to dis-
continue the publication of his theological writings. In this case,
taking only a portion of one of the works before mentioned, he
chose a title adapted to the particular part selected.]

The passages called Prophecies of, or concerning Jesus Christ,
in the old Testament, may be classed under the two following
heads : —

First, those referred to in the four books of the New Testa-
ment, called the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John.

Secondly, those which translators and commentators have, of

13*

210 EXAMINATION OF

their own imagination, erected into prophecies, and dubbed with
that title at the head of the several chapters of the Old Testa-
ment. Of these it is scarcely worth while to waste time, ink,
and paper upon; I shall therefore confine myself chiefly to those
referred to in the aforesaid four books of the New Testament.
If I show that these are not prophecies of the person called Je-
sus Christ, nor hava reference to any such person, it will be per-
fectly needless to combat those which translators or the Church
have invented, and for which they had no other authority than
their own imagination.

I begin with the book called the Gospel according to St. Mat-
thew.

In the first chap. ver. IS, it is said, " Noio the birth of Jesus
Christ loas on this wise; u-heiihis mother Mary was espoused to Jo-
seph, before they came together, she was found with child by
THE HOLY GHOST. " — This is going a little too fast ; because to
make this verse agree with the next it should have said no more
than that she loas found with child ; for the next verse says, " Then
Joseph her husband being a just man, and not luilling to make her a
public example, was minded to put her away privily." — Consequent-
ly Joseph had found out no more than that she was with child,
and he knew it was not by himself.

v. 20. " And while he thought of these things (that is, whether
he should put her away privily, or make a public example of her,)
behold the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream (that is,
Joseph dreamed that an angel appeared unto him) sayiiig, Joseph,
thou son of David, fear ?iot to take unto thee Mary thy loife, for that
tvhich is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring
forth a S071, and thou shalt call his name Jesus ; for he shall save
his people from their sins.'''

Now, witI>.out entering into any discussion upon the merits or
demerits of the account here given, it is proper to observe, that
it has no higher authority than that of a dream ; for it is impos-
sible for a man to behold any thing in a dream, but that which hn
dreams of. I nsk not, therefore, whether Joseph (if there was
such a man) had such a dream or not ; because, admitting he had,
it proves nothing. So wonderful and rational is the faculty of
the mind in dreams, that it acts the part of all the characters its
imagination creates, and what it thinks it hears from any of them,
is no other than what the roving rapidity of its own imagination
invents. It is tluMvfore nothing to me what Joseph dreamed of;
whether of the fidelity or infidelity of his wife. — I pay no regard
to my own dreams, and I should be weak indeed to put faith in
the dreams of anotlier.

The verses that follow those I have quoted, are the words of the
writer of the book of Matthew. " Now (says he) all this (that
is, all this dreaming and this pregnancy) tvas done that it might
he fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet, saying.

THE PROPHECIES. 211

" Behold a virgin shall be unth child, and shall bring forth a soUy
and they shall call his name Emmanuel^ u'hich being interpreted, is^
God with Hs."

. This passage i.-i in Isaiah, chap. vii. ver. 14, and the writer of
the book of Matthew endeavours to make his readers beHeve that
this passage is a prophecy of the person called Jesus Christ. It
is no such thing — and I go to show it is not. But it is first ne-
cessary that I explain the occasion of these words being spoken
by Isaiah ; the reader will then easily perceive, that so far from
their being a prophecy of Jesus Christ, they have not the least
reference to sucli a person, or any thing that could happen in the
time that Christ is said to have lived — which was about seven
hundred years after the time of Isaiah. The case is this :

On the death of Solomon the Jewish nation split into two mon
archies ; one called the kingdom of Judah, the capital of which
was Jerusalem ; the other the kingdom of Israel, the capital of
which was Samaria. The kingdom of Judah followed the line
of David, and the kingdom of Israel that of Saul ; and these two
rival monarchies frequently carried on fierce wars against each
other.

At the time Ahaz w^as ki/.^f of Judah, which was in the time of
Isaiah, Pekah was king of Israel : and Pekah joined himself to
Rezin, king of Syria, to make war against Ahaz, king of Judah ;
and these two kings marched a confederated and powerful army
against Jerusalem. Ahaz and his people became alarmed at the
danger, and " their hearts were moved as the trees of the wood are
moved with the wind.'''' Isaiah, chap. vii. ver. 3.

In this perilous situation of things, Isaiah addressed himself to
Ahaz, and assures him, in the name of the Lord (the cant phrase
of all the prophets) that these two kings should not succeed
against him ; and to assure him that this should be the case (the
case was however directly contrary*) tells Ahaz to ask a sign of
the Lord. This Ahaz declined doing, giving as a reason, that
he would not tempt the Lord : upon which Isaiah, who pretends
to be sent from God, says, ver. 14, "Therefore the Lord himself
shall give you a sign, behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son
— Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the
evil and choose the good — For before the child shall know to re-
fuse the evil and choose the good, the land which thou abhorrest
shall be forsaken of both her kings" — meaning the king of Is-
rael and the king of Syria, who were marching against him.

* Chron. chap, xxviii. ver. 1st-. Ahaz was twenty years oKi when he began to
reign, and he reigneJ sixteen years in Jerusalem, but he did not that whicii was right
rn the ti<^\M of ilie Lord. — Ver. 5. Wherefore ilie Lord jiis God delivered him into
the hand of the king of Syria, and they smote hiui, and carried away a great multi-
hide of them captive and brought them to Damascus : and he was also delivered into
the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.

Ver. 6. And Pekah (king of Israel) slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thou-
sand m one day. — Ver. 8. And the children of Israel carried away captive of tlieir
brethren two hundred thousand women , sons and daughters

212 EXAMINATION OF

Here then is the sign, which was to be the birth of a child,
and that child a son ; and here also is the time limited for the ac-
complishment of the sign, namely, before the child should know
to refuse tlie evil and choose the good.

The thinff, therefore, to be a sij;n of success to Ahaz must be
something that would take place before the event of the battle
then pending between hiin and the two kings could be known. A
thing to be a sign must precede the thing signified. The sign of
rain must be before the rain.

It would have been mockery and insulting nonsense for Isaiah
to have assured Ahaz as a sign that these two kings should not
prevail against him ; that a child should be born seven hundred
years after he was dead 5 and that before the child so born
should know to refuse the evil and choose the good, he, Ahaz,
should be delivered from the danger he was then immediately
threatened with.

But the case is, that the child of which Isaiah speaks was his
oicn child, with \\hich his wife or his mistress was then pregnant ;
for he says in the next chapter, v. 2, "^/icZ I took unto me faitl^ul
tcilnesscs to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeh-
erechiuh ; and I ti'eni unto the prophetess, and she conceived and
bear a son :" and he says at vcr. 18 of the same chapter, " Be-
hold 1 and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs
and for wonders in Israel.''^

It may not be improper here to observe, that the word trans-
lated o virgin in Isaiah, does not signify a virgin in Hebrew, but
merely a young woman. The tense also is falsified in the trans-
lation. Levi gives the Hebrew text of the 14th ver. of the 7th
chap, of Isaiah, and the translation in English with it-,—" Behold
a young woman is with child and beareth a so7i.''^ The expression,
says lie, is in the present tense. This translation agrees with the
other circumstances related of the birth of this child, which was
to be a sign to Ahaz. But as the true translation could not have
been imposed upon the world as a prophecy of a child to be born
seven hundred years afterwards, the Christian translators have
falsified the original ; and instead of making Isaiah to say, be-
hiild a young woman is with child and beareth a son — they make
hiin to say, behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. It is
however only necessary for a person to read the 7th and 8th
chapters of Isaiah, and he will be convinced that the passage in
question is no prophecy of the person called Jesus Christ. I
pass on to the second passage quoted from the Old Testament by
the New, as a prophecy of Jesus Christ.

Matthew, chap. ii. ver. 1. ''Now when Jesus was born in
Bethlehem of Judah, in tiie days of Herod the king, behold there
came wise men from the east to Jerusalem — saying, where is he
that is born king of the Jews ? for we have seen his star in the
east, and are come to worship him. When Herod, the king,

THE PROPHECIES. 213

heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him
— and when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of
the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should
be born — and they said unto him, in Betlilchem, in the land of
Judea ; for thus it is written by the prophet — and Ihon Bdhlchcm,
in the land of Judea, art thou not the least amon^; the Princes of Ju-
dea, fur oni of thee shall come a Govcrjwr that shall rule mij people
Israel.''^ This passage is in Micah, chap. v. ver. 2.

I pass over the absurdity of seeiTig and following a star in the
day-time, as a man would a Will with the wisp, or a candle and. lan-
tern at night ; and also that of seeing it in the east, when them-
selves came from the east ; for could such a thing be seen at all
to serve them for a guide, it must be in the west to them. I
confine myself solely to the passage called a prophecy of Jesus
Christ.

The book of Micah, in the passage above quoted, chap. v. vei
2, is speaking of some person without mentioning his name,
from whom some great achievements were expected ; but the de-
scription he gives of this person at the 5fh verse, proves evident-
ly that it is not Jesus Christ, for he says at the 5tli ver. " and this
man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our
land, and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise
up against him (that is, against the Assyrians) seven shepherds
and eight principal men — v. 6. And they shall waste the land
of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod on the en-
trance thereof ; thus shall He (the person spoken of at the head
of the second verse) deliver us from the Assyrian when he com-
eth into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders."

This is so evidently descriptive of a military chief, that it can-
not be applied to Christ without outraging the character they
pretend to give u3 of him. Besides which, the circumstances
of the times here spoken of, and those of the times in which
Christ is said to have lived, are in contradiction to each other.
It was the Romans, and not the Assyrians, that had conquered
and wei'e in the land of Judea, and trod in their jmlaces when
Christ was born, and when he died, and so far from his driving
them out, it was they who signed the warrant for his execution,
and he suffered under it.

Having thus shown that this is no prophecy of Jesus Christ, I
pass on to the third passage quoted from the Old Testament by
the New, as a prophecy of him.

This, like the first I have spoken of, is introduced by a dream.
Joseph dreameth another dream, and dreameth that he seeth
another angel. The account begins at the 13th ver. of 2d chap,
of Matthew.

" The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, say-
ing, Arise, and take the young child and his mother and flee in-
to Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word : For Herod

214 EXAMINATION OF

will seek the life of the young child to destroy him. When he
arose he took the young child and liis mother by night and de-
parted into Egypt — and was there until the death of Herod, that
it niigiit be fuUilled which was spoken of the Lord by the proph-
et, saying, " Out of Egijpt have I called my sony

This passage is in the book of Hosea, chap. xi. ver, 1. The
words are, " \Vhcn Israel was a child then I loved him and call-
ed iiiij son out of E^ijpt — As they called them, so they went from
them, tliey sacrificed unto Baalam and burnt incense to graven
images."

This passage, falsely called a prophecy of Christ, refers to
the children of Israel coming out of Egypt in tlie time of Pha-
raoh, and to the idolatry they committed, afterwards. To make
it apply to Jesus Christ, he must then be tiie person who sacri-
ficed unlo Baalam and burnt incense to graven images, for the per-
son called out of Egypt by the collective name, Israel, and the
persons committing this idolatry, are the same persons, or the
descendants of them. This then can be no prophecy of Jesus
Christ, unless they are willing to make an idolator of him. I pass
on to (he fourth passage called a prophecy b^ the writer of the
book of Matthew.

This is introduced by a story, told by nobody but himself, and
scarcely believed by any body, of the slaughter of all the chil-
dren under two years old, by the command of Herod. A thing
which it is not probable should be done by Herod, as he on-
ly held an office under the Roman government, to which appeals
could always be had, as we see in the case of Paul.

Matthew, however, having made or told his story, says, chap,
ii. v. 17. — " Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jere-
my, the prophet, saying, — In Ramnh vas there a voice heard, la-
mentation, weeping and great mourning ; Rachacl wttplwj:^ for hcf
children, and would not be comforted because they were not.^^

This passage is in Jeremiah, chap. xxxi. ver. 15, and this
verse, wlien separated from the verses before and after it, and
which explains its application, might with equal propriety be ap-
plied to every case of wars, sieges, and other violences, such as
the Christians themselves have often done to the Jews, where
mothers have lamented the loss of their children. There is
nothing in the verse taken singly that designates or points out
any particular application of it, otherwise than it points to some
circumstances which, at the time of writing it, had already hap-
pened, and not to a thing yet to happen, for the verse is in the
preter or past tense. I go to explain the case, and show the ap-
plication of the verse.

Jeremiah lived in the time that Nebuchadnezzar besieged,
took, plundered, and destroyed Jerusalem, and led the Jews
captive to Babylon. He carried his violence against the Jews
to every extreme. He slew the sons of king Zedekiah before

THE rROPHECIES. 215

his face, he then put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and kept him in
prison till the day of his death.

It is of this time of sorrow and suffering to the Jews that Je-
remiah is speaking. Their temple was destroyed, their land deso-
lated, their nation and gov-ernment entirely broken up, and
themselves, men, women, and children, carried into captivity.
They had too many sorrows of their own, immediately before
their eyes, to permit them, or any of their chiefs, to be employ-
ing themselves on things that might, or might not, happen in the
world seven hundred years afterwards.

It is, as already observed, of this time of sorrow and suffering
to the Jews that Jeremiah is speaking in the verse in question.
In the two next verses, the 16th and 17th, he endeavors to con-
sole the sufferers by giving them hopes, and according to the
fashion of speaking in those days, assurances from the Lord, that
their sufferings should have an end, and that their children should
return again to their own land. But I leave the verses to speak
for themselves, and the Old Testament to testify against the
New.

Jeremiah, chap, xxxi. ver. 15. — " Thus saith the Lord, a voice
was heard in Ramah (it is in the preter tense) lamentation and
bitter weeping : Rachael, weeping for her children because they
were not."

Verse 16. — " Thus saith the Lord, refrain thy voice from
weeping, and thine eyes from tears ; for thy work shall be re-
warded, saith the Lord, and they shall come again from the land
of the enemy."

Verse 17. — " And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord,
that thy children shall come again to their own border."

By what strange ignorance or imposition is it, that the children
of which Jeremiah speaks, (meaning the people of the Jewish
nation, scripturally called childreii of Israel, and not mere infants
under two years old,) and who were to return again from the
land of the enemy, and come again into their own borders, can
mean the children that Matthew makes Herod to slaughter ?
Could those return again from the land of the enemy, or how can
the land of the enemy be applied to them ? Could they come
again to their own borders ? Good heaven ! How has the world
been imposed upon by Testament-makers, priestcraft, and pre-
tended prophecies. I pass on to the fifth passage called a pro-
phecy of Jesus Christ.

This, like two of the former, is introduced by dream. Joseph
dreamed another dream, and dreameth of another Angel. And
Matthew is again the historian of the dream and the dreamer.
If it were asked how Matthew could know what Joseph dreamed,
neither the Bishop nor all the Church could answer the q\iestion.
Perhaps it was Matthew that dreamed and not Joseph, that is,
Joseph dreamed by proxy, in Matthew's brain, as they tell ub

216 EXAMINATION OF

Daniel dreamed for Nebuchadnezzar. But be this as it may,
I go on with my subject.

The account of this dream is in Matthew, chap. ii. ver. 19, —
" But when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord ap-
peared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt — Saying, arise and take
the young child and its mother, and go into the land of Israel,
for tliey are dead wliich sought the young child's life — and he
arose and took the young child and his mother, and came into the
land of Israel. But when lie heard that Archclaus did reign in
Judea in the room of his futlier Herod, he was afraid to go thither.
Notwithstanding being warned of God in a dream (here is an-
other dream) he turned aside into the parts of Galilee ; and he
came and dwelt in a city called vYtfrnrc/Zt, thai it iniglit bejaljitled
nhich ivas spoken bij (he prophets. — He shall be called a JVazarine.'^

Here is good circumstantial evidence, that Matthew dreamed,
for there is no such passage in all the Old Testament : and I in-
vite the bishop and all the priests in Christendom, including
those of America, to produce it. I pass onto the si.xth passage,
called a prophecy of Jesus Christ.

This, as Swift says on another occasion, is lugged in head and
shoulder ; it need only to be seen in order to be hooted as a
forced and far-fetched piece of imposition.

Matthew, chap, iv, v. 12. " Now when Jesus heard that
John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee — and leaving
Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the
sea coast, in the borders of Zebulon and Nephthalim — That it
might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias (Isaiah) the
prophet, saying, The land of Zebulon and the land (f JW'phlhalim,
bij the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the Genliles — the
people which sal in darkness saw p'eat light, and to them which sat
in the region and shadow of death, light is springing upon them.^^

I wonder IMatthcw has not made the cris-cross-row, or the
christ -cross-row (I know not how the priests spell it) into a pro-
phecy. He might as well have done this as cut out these un-
conn(u:tcd and undescripti\ c sentences from the place they stand
m and dubbed them with that title.

Ti»c words, however, are in Isaiah, chap. ix. ver. 1, 2, as fol-
lows : —

" Nevertheless the dimness shall nut be such as was in her
vexation, when at the first he lightly afilicted the land of Zebulon
and the land of JS''ephthali, and (ftenvard did more gi^evouslij af-
flict hrr by the icay (f the sea, beyoiul Jordan in Galilee of the na-
tions.''^

All tills relates to two circumstances that had already happened,
at tlic time these words in Isaiah wore written. The one, where
the land of Zebulon and Ncphthali had been lightly afflicted, and
afterwards more grievously by the waty.of the sea. But observe,
reader, how Matthew has falsified the text. He begins his quota-

THE PROPHECIES. 217

lion at a part of the verse where there is not so much as a comma,
and thereby cuts off every thing that relates to the first affliction.
He then leaves out all that relates to the second affliction, and by
this means leaves out every thing that makes the verse intelligi-
ble, and reduces it to a senseless skeleton of names of towns.

To bring this imposition of Matthew clearly and immediately
before the eye of the reader, I will repeat the verse, and put be-
tween crotchets the words he has left out, and put in Italics those
he has preserved.

[Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vex-
ation when at the first he lightly afflicted] the land of Zcbulon and
the land of JVephthali, [and did afterwards more grievously afflict
her] by the way of the sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations.

What gross imposition is it to gut, as the phrase is, a verse in
this manner, render it perfectly senseless, and then puff it off on
a credulous world as a prophecy. I proceed to the next verse.

Ver. 2. "The people that walked in darkness have seen a
great light ; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them hath the light shined." All this is historical, and not
in the least prophetical. The whole is in the preter tense : it
speaks of things that had been accomplished at the time the words
were written, and not of things to be accomplished afterwards.

As then the passage is in no possible sense prophetical, nor
intended to be so, and that to attempt to make it so, is not only to
falsify the original, but to commit a criminal imposition ; it is
matter of no concern to us, otherwise than as curiosity, to know
who the people were of which the passage speaks, that sat in
darkness, and what the light was that had shined in upon them.

If we look into the preceding chapter, the 8th, of which the
9th is only a continuation, we shall find the writer speaking, at
the 19th verse, of " witches and wizards xvho peep about and mut-
ter,^'' and of people who made application to them \ and he preach-
es and exhorts them against this darksome practice. It is of this
people, and of this darksome practice, or ivalking in darkness,
that he is speaking at the 2d verse of the 9th chapter ; and with
respect to the light that had shined in upon them, it refers entirely to
his own ministry, and to the boldness of it, which opposed itself
to that of the u'itches ami ivizurds irho peeped about and muttered.

Isaiah is, upon the whole, a wild disorderly writer, preserving
in general no clear chain of perception in the arrangement of his
ideas, and consequently producing no defined conclusions from
them. It is the wildness of his style, the confusion of his ideas,
and the ranting metaphors he employs, that have afforded so ma-
ny opportunities to priestcraft in some cases, and to superstition
in others, to impose those defects upon the world as prophecies
of Jesus Christ. Finding no direct meaning in them, and not
knowing what to make of them, and supposing at tlie same time
they Avere intended to have a meaning, they supplied the defect

19

218 EXAMINATION OF

by inventing a meaning of their own, and called it his. 1 liave,
however, in this place done Isaiah the justice to rescue him fi-om
the claws of Matthew, who has torn him unmercifully to pieces ;
and from the imposition or ignorance of priests and commentators,
by letting Isaiah speak for himself

If the words wfil/iing in dorkiiess, and light breaking in, could in
any case be applied prophetically, which they cannot be, they
would better apply to the times we now live in than to any other
The world has '■^walked in darkness'''' for eighteen hundred years,
both as to religion and government, and it is only since the Ameri-
can Revolution began that light has broken in. The belief of one
God, whose attributes are revealed to us in the book of scripture
of the creation, which no human hand can counterfeit or falsify,
and not in the written or printed book which, as Matthew has
shown, can be altered or falsified by ignorance or design, is now
making its way among us : and as to government, ilu light is al-
ready gone forth, and whilst men ought to be careful not to be
blinded by the excess of it, as at a certain time in France, when
every thing was Robespicrrean violence, they ought to reverence,
and even to adore it, with all the firmness and perseverance that
true wisdom can inspire.

I pass on to the seventh passage, called a prophecy of Josus
Christ.

Matthew, chap. viii. ver. 16. "When the evening was come,
they brought unto him (Jesus) many that were possessed with
devils, and he cast out the spirit with his word, and healed all that
were sick. — That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias
(Isaiah) the prophet, saying, himself took our injirmities, and bear
our sicknesses.''''

This affair of people being possessed by devils, and of casting
them out, was the fable of the day when the books of the New
Testament were written. It had not existence at any other time.
The books of the Old Testament mention no such thing ; the peo-
ple of the present day know of no such thing ; nor does the history
of any people or country speak of such a thing. It starts upon
us all at once in the book of Matthew, and is altogether an in-
vention of the New Testament-makers and the Christian church.
The book of Matthew is the first book where the word Devil is
mentioned.* We read in some of the books of the Old Testament
of things called familiar spirits, the suj)posed companions of people
called witches and wizards. It was no other than the trick of pre-
tended conjurors to obtain money from credulous and ignorant
people, or the fabricated charge of superstitious malignancy a-
gainst unfortunate and decrepid old age.

But the idea of a familiar .sj)irit, if we can affix any idea to the
term, is exceedingly dilierent to that of being possessed by a dev-

* 'File wonl dfvil in a prrsoniOcation of the word tvil.

THE PROPHECIES, 219

il. In the one case, the supposed familiar spirit is a dexterous
agent, that comes and goes and does as he is bidden: in the oth-
er, he is a turbulent roaring monster, that tears and tortures the
body into convulsions. Reader, whoever thou art, put thy trust
in thy Create", make use of the reason he endowed thee with, and
cast from thee all sucli fables.

The passage alluded to by Matthew, for as a quotation it is false,
is in Isaiah, chap. liii. ver. 4. which is as follows :

"Surely he (the person of whom Isaiah is speaking of) hatk
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." It is in the preter
tense.

Here is nothing about casting out devils, nor curing of sickness-
es. The passage, therefore, so far from being a prophecy of
Christ, is not even applicable as a circumstance.

Isaiah, or at least the writer of the book that bears his name,
employs the whole of this chapter, the 53d, in lamenting the suf-
ferings of some deceased persons, of whom he speaks very pathet-
ically. It is a monody on the death of a friend ; but he mentions
not the name of the person, nor gives any circumstance of him by
which he can be persoally known ; and it is this silence, which is
evidence of nothing, that Matthew has laid hold of to put the name
of Christ to it ; as if the chiefs of the Jews, whose sorrows were
then great, and the times they lived in big with danger, were never
thinking about their own affairs, nor the fate of their own friends,
but were continually running a wild goose chase into futurity.

To make a monody into a prophecy is an absurdity. The char-
acters and circumstances of men, even in different ages of the
world, are so much alike, that what is said of one may with pro-
priety be said of many ; but this fitness does not make the pas-
sage into a prophecy ; and none but an impostor or a bigot would
call it so.

Isaiah, in deploring the hard fate and loss of his friend, men-
tions nothing of him but what the human lot of man is subject to.
All the cases he states of him, his persecutions, his imprisonment,
his patience in suffering, and his perseverance in principle, are
all within the line of nature ; they belong exclusively to none, and
may with justness be said of many. But if Jesus Christ was the
person the church represents him to be, that which would exclu-
sively apply to him, must be something that could not apply to
any other person ; something beyond the line of nature ; some-
thing beyond the lot of mortal man; and there are no such ex-
pressions in this chapter, nor any other chapter in the Old Test-
ament.

It is no exclusive description to say of a person, as is said of
the person Isaiah is lamenting in this chapter. ''He was oppress-
ed, and he was ajjiidcd, ycf h£ opened not his mouth : he is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter , ai.d as a sheep before his shearers is dumb,
so he opened not fm inon//(." This m;<y be said of thousands of

220 EXAMINATION OF

persons, who have sufFered oppressions and unjust death with pa-
tience, silence, and perfect resignation.

Grotius, whom the bishop esteems a most learned man, and who
certainly was so, supposes that the person of whom Isaiah is speak-
ing, is Jeremiah. Grotius is led into this opinion, from the agree-
ment there is between the description given by Isaiah, and the
case of Jeremiah, as stated in the book that bears his name. If
Jeremiah was an innocent man, and not a traitor in the interest of
Nebuchadnezzar, when Jerusalem was besieged, his case was
hard ; he was accused by his countrymen, was persecuted, op-
pressed, and imprisoned, and he says of himself, (see Jeremiah,
chapter ii. ver. 1 9,) "jBu/ as for me, 1 was like a lamb or an ox that is
brought to the skill f^hter.^^

I should be inclined to the same opinion with Grotius, had Isaiah
lived at the time 'vhen Jeremiah underwent the cruelties of which
he speaks ; but Isaiah died about fifty years before : and it is of a
person of his own time, whose case Isaiah is lamenting in the chap-
ter in question, and which imposition and bigotry, more than seven
hundred years afterwards, perverted into a prophecy of a person
they call Jesus Christ.

I pass on to the eighth passage called a prophecy of Jesus
Christ.

Matthew, chap. xii. ver. 14. "Then the pharisees went out
and held a council against him, how they might destroy him — But
when Jesus knew it he withdrew himself; and great numbers fol-
lowed him, and he healed them all — and he charged them that they
should not make him known : That it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by Esaias (Isaiah) the prophet, saying,

" Behold my servant whom I have chosen : my beloved in
whom my soul is well pleased ; I will put my spirit upon him, and
he shall show judgment to the Gentiles — he shall not strive nor
cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets — a bruised
reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he net quench,
till he sends forth judgment unto victory — and in his nam© shall
the Gentiles trust."

In the first place, this passage hath not the least relation to
the purpose for which it is quoted.

Matthew says, that the Pharisees held a council against Jesus
to destroy him — that Jesus withdrew himself — that great num-
bers followed him — that he healed them — and that he charged
them they should not make him known.

But the passage Matthew has quoted as being fulfilled by these
circumstances, does not so much as apply to any one of them. It
has nothing to do with the Pharisees holding a council to destroy
Jesus — with his withdrawing himself — with great numbers follow-
ing him — with his healing them — nor with his charging them not
to make him known.

The purpose for which the passage is quoted, and the passage

THE PROPHECIES. 221

itself, are as remote from each other, as nothing from something.
But the case is, that people have been so long in the habit of
reading the books called the Bible and Testament, with their eyes
shut, and their senses locked up, that the most stupid inconsist-
encies have passed on them for truth, and imposition for prophe-
cy. The all-wise Creator hath been dishonoured by being made
the author of fable, and the human mind degraded by believing
It.

In this passage, as in that last mentioned, the name of the per-
son of whom the passage speaks is not given, and we are left in
the dark respecting him. It is this defect in the history, that big-
otry and imposition have laid hold of, to call it prophecy.

Had Isaiah lived in the time of Cyrus, the passage would de-
scriptively apply to him. As king of Persia, his authority was
great among the Gentiles, and it is of such a character the pas-
sage speaks ; and his friendship to the Jews whom he liberated
from captivity, and who might then be compared to a bruised reed,
was extensive. But this description does not apply to Jesus
Christ, who had no authority among the Gentiles 5 and as to his
own countrymen, fig>iratively described by the bruised reed, it
was they who crucified him. Neither can it be said of him that
he did not cry, and that his voice was not heard in the street.
As a preacher it was his business to be heard, and we are told
that he travelled about the country for that purpose. Matthew
has given a long sermon, which (if his authority- is good, but
which is much to be doubted, since he imposes so much,) Jesus
preached to a multitude upon a mountain, and it would be a quib-
ble to say that a mountain is not a street, since it is a place equal-
ly as public.

The last verse in the passage (the 4th,) as it stands in Isai-
ah, and which Matthew has not quoted, says, '•' He shall not fail
nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth and the
isles shall wait for his law." This also applies to Cyrus. He
was not discouraged, he did not fail, he conquered all Babylon,
liberated the Jews, and established laws. But this cannot be said
of Jesus Christ, who, in the passage before us, according to Mat-
thew, withdrew himself for fear of the Pharisees, and charged the
people that tbllowed him not to make it known where he was ;
and who, according to other parts of the Testament, was contin-
ually moving from place to place to avoid being apprehended.*

* In the second part of the -Age of Reason, I have shown t)iat the book ascribed
to Isaiah is not only miscellaneous as to matter, but as to authorsiiip : that there are
parts in it which could not be written by Isaiah, because they speak of things one
iiundi'ed and fifty years after he was dead. The instance I have given of this, in that
work, corresponds with tlie subject I am upon, at least a little better than 3Iattheto's
introduction and his quotation.

Isaiah lived, the latter part of his life, in the time of Ilezekiah, and it was about
one hundred and fifty years, from the death of Hezekiah to the first year of tlie reign
of Cyrus, when Cyrus published a proclamation, which is given in the first chapter of
the book of Ezra, for the return of tlie Jews to Jerusalem. It cannot he douljted, at

19*

2i2~2 EXAMINATION OF

But it is immaterial to us, at this distance of time, to know who
the person was : it is sufficient to the purpose I am upon, that of
detecting fraud and falsehood, to know who it was not, and to
show it was not the person called Jesus Christ.

I pass on to the ninth passage called a prophecy of Jesus Christ,

Matthew, chap. xxi. v. 1. "And when they drew nigh unto
Jerusalem, and Avere come to Bethpage, unto the mount of Ol-
ives, then Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying unto them, go
into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an
ass tied, and a colt with her, loose them and bring them unto me
— and if any man say aught to you, ye shall say, the Lord hath
need of them, and straightway he will send them.

" All this v/as done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken
by the prophet, saying. Tell ye the daughter of Sion, behold thy
king Cometh unto thee meek, and settiiig on an ass, and a colt the
foal of an ass.''^

Poor ass ! let it be some consolation amidst all thy sufferings,
that if the heathen world erected a bear into a constellation, the
Christian world has elevated thee into a prophecy.

This passage is in Zechariah, chap. ix. v^r. 9, and is one of
the whims of friend Zechariah to congratulate his countrymen,
who were then returning from captivity in Babylon, and himself
with them, to Jerusalem. It has no concern with any other sub-
ject. It is strange that apostles, priests, and commentators, nev-
er permit, or -never suppose, the Jews to be speaking of their
own affairs. Every thing in the Jewish books is perverted and
distorted into meanings never intended by the writers. Even the
poor ass must not be a Jew-ass but a Christian-ass. I wonder
they did not make an apostle of him, or a bishop, or at least make

least it ought not to be doubted, that the Jews would feel an affectionate gratitude for
this act of bencvolen: jnstice, and it is natural they would express that gratitude in the
custouiapf style, Lxjiiibastical and hyperbolical as it was, which they used on extraor-
dinary (x:casio.iR, .ind which was, and still is in practice with all the eastern nations.

The instance to which 1 refer, anil wliidi is given in the second part of the Age of
Reason, is the last verse of the 44th chapter, and the beginning of the 45lli — in these
words : " IViat saith of C'l/ru.^, he is mi/ shephrrd and shall perform all my pleas-
ure : even xayinn- to Jemsnlem, thou shall he built, and to the Temple, thy foun-
dation shall be laid. 'I^hii.t ^aith the iMrd to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right
hand I have holden to sxibdue nations before him; and J toill loose the loins of
kin^s, to open before him the tiro-liaved gates, and the gates shall 7iot be shut."

This cdnipliinentary address is ir) iIk; present lease, which shows that the things of
which it speaks were in existence at tiie time of writing it ; an.l C(»nse(|iiently, that
the author mast have been at least one hundred antl fiflv years later than Isaiah, and
that thebiiok 'vhich bears his name is a conipilaUon. The I'roverbs called Solomon's,
and the I'salms called David's, are of tln! s.uue kind. 'J'lie two last verses of tbe
second book of Chronicles, and the three first verses of the first chapter of Ezra, are
word for word the same ; which show that the compilers of the IJible mixed the writings
of different authors togethei', aiiil jint iIhmu iniiler some common head.

As we have here an in^itaMce in the 44lh ami 45ili iluiptcrs of the introduction of
the name of ('\ni3 into a liook to which it cannot Indong, it aftords good ground to
conclude, that the passage in the 421 chapter, in which the character of Cyrus is giv-
en without bis name, has been intioduccd in like manner, and that the person there
spoken of is C} rus

THE PROPHECIES. 223

him speak and prophecy. He could have Ufled up his voice as
loud as any of them.

Zechariah, in the first chapter of his book, indulges himself in
several whims on the joy of getting back to Jerusalem. He says
at the 8th verse, " I saw by night (Zechariah was a sharp-sight-
ed seer) and beliold a man sitting on a red horse, (yes, reader, a
red horse) and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the
bottom, and behind him were red horses speckled and while.^^ He
says nothing about green horses, nor blue horses, perhaps because
it is difficult to distinguish green from bjue by night, but a Chris-
tian can have no doubt they were there, because '■'■faith is the ev-
idence of thiiigs not seen.''''

Zechariah then introduces an anjiel among his horses, but he
does not tell us what colour the angel was of, whether black or
white, nor whether he came to buy horses, or only to look at them
as curiosities, for certainly they were of that kind. Be this how-
ever, as it may, he enters into conversation with this angel, on
the joyful affair of getting back to Jerusalem, and he saith at the
16th verse, " Therefore, thus saith tlie Lord, / am returned to
Jerusalem with mercies ; my house shall be built in it, saith the
Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusa-
lem." An expression signifying the rebuilding the city.

All this, whimsical and ipiaginary as it is, sufficiently proves
that it was the entry of the Jews into Jerusalem from captivity,
and not the entry of Jesus Christ seven hundred years afterwards,
that is the subject upon which Zechariah is always speaking.

As to the expression of riding upon an ass, which commenta-
tors represent as a sign of humility in Jesus Christ, the case is,
he never was so well mounted before. The asses of those coun-
tries are large and well-proportioned, and were anciently the
chief of riding animals. Their beasts of burden, and which
served also for the conveyance of the poor, were camels and drom-
edaries. We read in Judges, chap. x. ver. 4, that " Jair (one
of the Judges of I-srael) had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass-
colts, and they had thirty cities." But commentators distort ev-
ery thing.

There is besides very reasonable grounds to conclude that this
story of Jesus riding publicly into Jerusalem, accompanied, as it
is said at the 8th and 9th verses, by a great multitude, shouting
and rejoicing, and spreading their garments by the way, is alto-
gether a story destitute of truth.

In the last passage called a prophecy that I examined, Jesus
is represented as withdrawing, that is, running away, and con-
cealing himself for fear of being apprehended, and charging the
people that were with him not to make him known. No new cir-
cumstance had arisen in the interim to change his condition for
the better ; yet here h? is represented as making his public entry
into the same city froi.. which he had fled for safety. The two

224 EXAMINATION OP

cases contradict each other so much, that if both are not false,
one of them at least can scarcely be true. For my own part, I
do not beUeve there is one word of historical truth in the whole
book. I look upon it at best to be a romance ; the principal per-
sonage of which is an imaginary or allegorical character founded
upon some tale, and in which the moral is in many parts good,
and the narrative part very badly and blunderingly written.

I pass on to the tenth passage, called a prophecy of Jesus
Christ.

Matthew, chap. xxvi. ver. 51. "And behold one of them
which was with Jesus (meaning Peter) stretched out his hand^
and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest, and
smote ofi' his ear. Then said Jesus unto him. Put up again thy
sword into its place, for all they that take the sword shall perish
with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my
Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions
of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled that
thus it must be.' In that same hour Jesus said to the multitudes,
are ye come out as against a thief with swords and with staves
for to take me ? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and
ye laid no hold on me. But all this was done that the scriptures
of the prophets might be fulfilled.

This loose and general manner of speaking, admits neither of
detection nor of proof Here is no quotation given, nor the name
of any Bible author mentioned, to which reference can be had.

There are, however, some high improbabilities against the
truth of the account.

First-r-It is not probable that the Jews, who were then a con-
quered people, and under subjection to the Homans, should be
permitted to wear swords.

Secondly — If Peter had attacked the servant of the high priest
and cut off his ear, he would have been immediately taken up by
the guard that took up his master, and sent to prison with him.

Thirdly — What sort of disciples and preaching apostles must
thoijc of Ciirist have been that wore swords ?

Fourthly — This scene is n'i)resented to have taken place the
same evening of what is called the Lord's Supper, which makes,
according to the ceremony of it, the inconsistency of wearing
swords the greater.

I pass on to the eleventh passage called a prophecy of Jesus
Christ.

Matthew, chap, xxvii. ver. .'3. " Then Judas which had be-
trayed him, when he saw that he was conderniicd, repented liim-
self, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief
priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in tliat I have betrayed
the innocent blood. And they said, what is that to >is, see thou to
that. And he cast down the pieces of silver, and departed and
went and hanged himself-— And the chief priests took the silver

THE PROPIIECIKS. 225

pieces and said, it is not lawful to put them in the treasury, he-
cause it is the price of hlood — And they took counsel and bought
with them the potter's field to bury strangers in — Wherefore that
field is called the field of blood unto this day. Then was fulfill-
ed Inat which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And
they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was
valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value, and gave
them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me."

This is a most l)arc-faced piece of imposition. The passage
in Jeremiah, which speaks of the purchase of a field, has no more
to do with the case to which Matthew applies it, than it has to
do with the purchase of lands in America. I will recite the
whole passage : —

Jeremiah, chap, xxxii. v. 6. " And Jeremiah said, the word of
the Lord came unto me, saying — Behold Hanamiel, the son of
Shallum thine uncle, shall come unto thee, saying, buy thee my
field that is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is thine to
buy it — So Hanamiel mine uncle's son came to me in the court
of the prison, according to the word of the Lord, and said unto
me, buy my field I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in
the country of Benjamin, for the right of inheritance is thine, and
the redemption is thine ; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that
this was the word of the Lord — And I bought the field of Hana-
miel mine uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him
the money, even seventeen shekels of silver — and I subscribed
the evidence and sealed it, and took witnesses and weighed him
the money in balances. So I took the evidence of the purchase,
both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and
that which was open — and I gave the evidence of the purchase
unto Baruch, the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the
sight of Hanamiel mine uncle's son, and in the presence of the
witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the
Jews that sat in the court of the prison — and I charged Baruch
before them, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Is-
rael, Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both
which is sealed, and this evidence which is open, and put them in
an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days — for thus
saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel^ houses, and fields, and
vineyards, shall be possessed again in this land."

I forbear making any remark on this abominable imposition
of Matthew. The thing glaringly speaks for itself. It is priests
and commentators that I rather ought to censure, for having
preached falsehood so long, and kept people in darkness with
respect to those impositions. I am not contending with these
men upon points of doctrine, for I know that sophistry has always
a city of refuge. I am speaking of facts ; for wherever the
thing called a fact is a falsehood, the faith founded upon it is de-
lusion, and the doctrine raised upon it not true. Ah, reader,

226

EXAMINATIOX OF

put thy trust in thy Creator, and thou wilt be safe ' but if thou
trustest to the book called the Scriptures, thou trustest to the rot-
ten staff' of fable and falsehood. IJut I return to my subject.

There is among the whims and reveries of Zechariah, mention
made of thirty pieces of silver given to a potter. They can hard-
ly have been so stupid as to mistake a potter for a field : and if
they had, the passage in Zechariah has no more to do with Je-
sus, Judas, and the field to bury strangers in, than that already
quoted. I Avill recite the passage.

Zechariah, chap. xi. ver. 7. " And I will feed the flock of
slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock ; and I took unto me
two staves ; the one I called Btaufij and the other I called Bands,
and I fed the flock — Three shepherds also, I cut off" in one
month ; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred
me- — Then said I, I will not feed you ; that which dieth, let it
die ; and that which is to be cut off', let it be cut off; and let the
rest eat every one the flesh of another. — And I took my staff, even
Jiemiirj, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which
I had made with all the people. — And it was broken in that day ;
and so the poor of the flock who waited upon me, knew that it
M'asthe word of the Lord.

" And I said unto them, if ye think good, g'ive me my price,
and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of
silver. And the Lord said unto me, cast it unto the potter, a goodly
price that I was prised at of them ; and I took the thirty pieces
of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord.

"When I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I
might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel."*

♦ Winston, in liis Essay on the Old Testament, say.s,tliat liic passage of Zechariah
of which I have spoken, was in the copies of die Bible of the first century, in the
Iwokof Jeremiah, from whence, says he, it was taken and inserted withoiit coher
cnce, in that of Zechariah — well, let it be so, it does not make tlie case a whit tlie
better for the New Testament ; but it makes the case a great deal the worse for the

■ILa ^^^^"5^ '' shows, as I have mentioned respecting some passages in a Ixjok as-
cribed to Isaiah, that the works of dilTerent aiitliors have been so mixed :uid con-
founded together, they cannot now be discriminated, except where Uiey are historical
chronological, or biographical, as is the interpolation in Isaiah. It 'is die name of
Cyrus inserted where it could not be inserted, as he was not in existence till onf
hundred and fifty years after the time of Isaiah, Uiat detects the interpolation and the
blunder with it.

Whiston was a man of great literary learning, and, what is of much higher degree;
of deep scientific learning. lie was one of the best and most celebrated mathemati-
cians of his time, for which he was made professor of mathematics of the university
of Cambridge. He wrote so much in defence of the Old Testament, and of what he
calls prophecies of Jesus Christ, that at lajit he began to suspect the truth of the scrip-
tures, and wrote against them; for it is only those who examine tlicin, that see the
imp<)sitio? Tliosc who believe them most, are those who know least about them.

\\ liiston, after writing so iiuicli in difnice of the scriptures, was at last prosecuted
for writing an.iinst iherii. It was this lliat ),Mvc occasion to Swift, in his ludicrous
epigram on Diiton and Whir^ton, each of wliiih set up to find out the longitude, to call
tlie one ^ood maxfer Ditton, and the other, tvickeit will ffhiston. lint as Swift
wa.s a great associate with ilje Freethinkers of th..se days, such as l?olingi)roke, Tope,
;nid others, who did not believe die book calle<l the sciifitiircs, there is no certainty
whedier he wiiiily called him vucked fir ilcfending the scrip.tures, or for writing
tgiins' thrin 'I'he kn<rwn character of fcwifl ileciiles for the former.

THE PKOrHECIES. 227

There is no making either head or tail of this incoherent gib-
berish. His two staves, one called Bcmiiy and the other Bands,
is so much like a fairy tale, that I doubt if it had any otiicr ori-
gin.— There is, however, no part that has tlio least relation to
the case stated in Matthew ; on the contrary it is tlic reverse of
it. Here the Ihhiy pieces of silver, whatever it was for, is called
a. goodlij pncc, it was as much as the thing was wortli, and ac-
cording to the language of the day, was- approved of by the
Lord, and the money given to the potter in the house of the
Lord. In the case of Jesus and Judas, as stated in Matthew,
the thirty pieces of silver were the price of blood; the transac-
tion was condemned by the Lord, and the money, when refund-
ed, was refused admittance into the treasury. Every thing in
the two cases is the reverse of each other.

Besides this, a very different and direct contrary account to
that of Matthew, is given of the affair of Judas, in the book
called the t^ds of the Jiposllcs ; according to that book the case
is, that so far from Judas repenting and returning the money,
and the high priest buying a field with it to bury strangers in,
Judas kept the money and bought a field with it for himself;
and instead of hanging himself as Matthew says, he fell head-
long and burst asunder — some commentators endeavour to get
over one part of the contradiction by ridiculously supposing that
Judas hanged himself first and the rope broke.

Acts, chap. i. ver. 16. " Men and brethren, this scripture
must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the
mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was a
guide to them that took Jesus. (David says not a word about
Judas) ver. 17, for he (Judas) was numbered among us and
obtained part of our ministry."

Ter. 18. " JVotc this man purchased a field wiih the reward of
iniquity, and falling headlong he burst asunder in the jnidst, and his
bowels gushed out.'''' Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the
New-Testament revealed relision. when we see in it such contra-
dictions and absurdities.

I pass on to the twelfth passage calledaprophecy of Jesus Christ.

Matthew, chap, xxvii, ver. 35. " And they crucified him,
and parted his garments, casting lots; that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments
among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.'''' This ex-
pression is in the 22d Psalm, ver. 18. Tiie writer of that Psalm
(whoever he was, for the Psalms are a collection and not the work
of one man) is speaking of himself and his own case, and not that
of another. He begins this Psalm with the words which the
New-Testament writers ascribed to Jesus Christ. ^^My God,
my God, why hast thuuforsal:en me''' — words which might be utter-
ed by a complaining man without any great impropriety, but
very improperly from the mouth of a reputed God.

£28 EXAMINATION OP

The picture which the writer draws of his own situation in
this Psalm, is gloomy enough. He is not prophesying, but com-
plaining of I'.is own hard case. He represents himself as sur-
rounded by enemies and beset by persecutions of every kind;
and by way of showing the inveteracy of his persecutors, he
says at the 18th verse, " They pcnied my garments among them,
and cast lots upon my vesture.''^ The expression is in the present
tense ; and is the same as to say, they pursue me even to the
clothes upon my back, and dispute how they shall devide them ;
besides, the word vesture does not always mean cloathing of any
kind, but property, or rather the admitting a man to, or investing
him with property ; and as it is used in this Psalm distinct from
the word garment, it appears to be used in this sense. But
Jesus had no property ; for they make him say of himself, " The
foxes hare holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of
man hath not where to lay his head.^^

But be this as it may, if we permit ourselves to suppose the
Almighty would condescend to tell, by what is called the spirit of
prophecy, what could come to pass in some future age of the
world, it is an injury to our own faculties, and to our ideas of his
greatness, to imagine that it would be about an old coat, or an
old pair of breeches, or about any thing which the common
accidents of life, or the quarrels that attend it, exhibit every day.

That which is in the power of man to do, or in his will not
to do, is not a subject for prophecy, even if there were such a
thing, because it cannot carry with it any evidence of divine
power, or divine interposition : The ways of God are not the
ways of men. That which an almighty power performs, or wills,
is not within the circle of human power to do, or to control.
But any executioner and his assistants might quarrel about divid-
ing the garments of a sufferer, or divide them without quarreling,
and by that means fulfil the thing called a prophecy, or set it aside.

In tiie passage before examined, I have exposed the falsehood
of them. In tliis I exhibit its degrading meanness, as an insult
to the Creator and an injury to human reason.

Here end the j)assages called prophecies by Matthew,

Matthew concluded his book by saying, that when Christ ex-
pired on the cross, the rocks rent, the graves opened, and the
bodies of many of tlie saints arose ; and Mark says, there was
darkness over the land from the sixth hour until the ninth. They
produce no prophecy for this ; but had these things been facts,
they would have been a proper subject for prophecy, because
none but an almighty power could have inspired a fore-knowl-
edge of them, and afterwards fulfdled them. Since then, there
is no such prophecy, but a pretended prophecy of an old coat,
the proper deduction i.s, there were no such things, and that the
book of Matthew is fable and falsehood.

I pass on to the book called the Gospel according to St. Mark.

THE PROPHECIES. 229

THE BOOK OF MARK.

There are but few passages in Mark called prophecies ; and
but few in Luke and John. Such as there are I shall examine,
and also such other passages as interfere with those cited by
Matthew.

Mark begins his book by a passage which he puts in the
shape of a prophecy. Mark, chap, i, ver 1. — " The beginning
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God — As it is written
in the prophets, Belwld I send my messenger before thy face, tchich
shall prepare the way before theey Malachi, chap. iii. vcr. 1.
The passage in the original is in the first person. Mark makes
this passage to be a prophecy of John the Baptist, said by the
Church to be a forerunner of Jesus Christ. But if we attend
to the verses that follow this expression, as it stands in Malachi,
and to the first and fifth verses of the next chapter, we shall see
that this application of it is erroneous and false.

Malachi having said at the first verse, "Behold I will send my
messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me," says at the
second verse, "But who may abide the day of his coming? and
who shall stand when he appeareth .^ for he is like a refiner's
fire, and like fuller's soap."

This description can have no reference to the birth of Jesus
Christ, and consequently none to John the Baptist. It is a
scene of fear and terror that is here described, and the birth of
Christ is always spoken of as a time of joy and glad tidings.

Malachi, continuing to speak on the same subject, explains in
the next chapter what the scene is of which he speaks in the
verses above quoted, and who the person is whom he calls the
messenger.

" Behold," says he, chap. iv. ver. l,"the day cometh that shall
burn like an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wick-
edly, shall be stubble ; and the day cometh that shall burn them
up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root
nor branch."

Ver. 5. " Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the
coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord."

By what right, or bv what imposition or ignorance Mark has
made Elijah into John the Baptist, and Malachi's description of
the day of judgment i.ito the birth day of Christ, I leave to the
Bishop to settle.

Mark, in the second and third verses of his first chapter, con-
founds two passages together, taken from different books of the
Old Testament. The second verse, " Behold I send my mes-
senger before thy face, which shall prepare the way before me,"
is taken, as I have said before, from Malachi. The third verse,
which says, " The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare

20

230 EXAMINATION OF

ye the way of the Lord, maKe his path straight," is not in Mala-
chi, but in Isaiah, chap. xi. ver. 3. Whiston says, that both
these verses were originally in Isaiah. If so, it is another in-
stance of the disordered state of the Bible, and corroborates
what I have said with respect to the name and description of
Cyrus being in the book of Isaiah, to which it cannot chronolo-
gically belong.

The words in Isaiah, chap. xl. ver. 3, " The voice of him that
C7'yeth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his
path straight,^^ are in the present tense, and consequently not
predictive. It is one of those rhetorical figures which the Old
Testament authors frequently used. That it is merely rhetor-
ical and metaphorical, may be seen at the Gth verse. " And
the voice said, cry ; and he said, what shall I cry.'' Jllljlesh is
grass.^^ This is evidently nothing but a figure ; ior flesh is not
grass otherwise than as a figure or metaphor, where one tiling is
put for another. Besides which, the whole passage is too gen-
eral and declamatory to be applied exclusively to any particular
person or purpose.

I pass on to the eleventh chapter.

In this chapter, Mark speaks of Christ riding into Jerusalem
upon a colt, but he does not make it the accomplishment of a pro-
phecy, as Matthew has done ; for he says nothing about a prophe-
cy. Instead of which, he goes on the other tack, and in order to
add new honours to the ass, he makes it to be a miracle ; for he
says, ver. 2, it was "o colt ivhereon never man sat ,•" signfying
thereby, that as the ass had not been broken, he consc(iuently wus
inspired into good manners, for we do not hear that he kicked Je-
sus Christ off. There is not a word about his kicking in all the
four Evangelists.

I pass on from these feats of horsemanship, performed upon a
jack-ass, to the 15th chapter.

At the 24th verse of this chapter, Mark speaks of parting
Chiist^s garments and casting lots upon them, but he applies no
prophecy to it as Matthew does. He rather speaks of it as a
thing then in practice witii executioners, as it is at this dfiy.

At the 28th verse of the same chapter, Mark speaks of Christ
being crucified between two thieves ; that, says he, " the scrip-
tures might be fulfilled which sailh, and he was numhcrcd with the
transgressors.^^ The same thing mijiht be said of the thieves.

This expression is in Isaiah, chap. liii. ver. 12 — Grotius applies
it to Jeremiah. But the case has happened so often in the world,
where innocent men have been numbered with transgressors, and
is still continually happening, that it is absurdity to call it a pro-
phecy of any particular person. All those whom tlie churcli call
martyrs were nunibcted with transgressors. All the honest pat-
riots who fell upon the scaflold in France, in the time of Robes-
pierre, were numbered with transgressors ; and if iiimsclf had not

THE PROPHECIES. 231

fallen, the same case, according to a note in his own hand-writing,
had befallen me ; ye( I suppose the Bishop will not allow that
Isaiah was prophesying of Thomas Paine.

These are all the passages in Mark which have any reference
to prophecies.

Mark concludes his book by making Jesus say to his disciples,
chap. xvi. ver. 15, •' Go ye into all the world and preach the gos-
pel to every creature ; he that bclieveth and is baptized shall be
saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned (fine Popish stuff
this,) and these signs shall follow them that believe ; in my name
they shall cast out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues ;
they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it
shall not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they
shall I'ecover."

Now, the Bishop, in order to know if he has all this saving and
wonder-working faith, should try those things upon himself He
should take a good dose of arsenic, and if he please, I will send
him a rattle-snake from America ! As for myself, as I believe in
God, and not at all in Jesus Christ, nor in the books called the
scriptures, the experiment does not concern me.

I pass on to the book of Luke.

There are no passages in Luke called prophecies, excepting
those which relate to the passages I have already examined.

Luke speaks of Mary being espoused to Joseph, but he makes
no references to the passage in Isaiah, as Matthew does. He
speaks also of Jesus riding into Jerusalem upon a colt ; But he
says nothing about prophecy. He speaks of John the baptist, and
refers to the passage in Isaiah of which I have already spoken.

At (he 13th chapter, verse 31, he says, "The same day there
came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, (Jesus) get
thee out and depart hence, for Herod will kill thee — and he said
unto them, go ye and tell that fox, behold I cast out devils and I
do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be per-
fected."

Matthew makes Herod to die whilst Christ was a child in E-
gypt, and makes Joseph to return with the child on the news of
Herod's death, who had sought to kill him. Luke makes Herod
to be living, and to seek the life of Jesus, after Jesus was thirty
years of age ; for he says, chap. iii. v. '23, "And Jesus began to
be about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of
Joseph."

The obscurity in which the historical part of the New Testa-
ment is involved with respect to Herod, may afford to priests and
commentators a plea, which to some may appear plausible, but to
none satisfactory, that the Herod of which Matthew speaks, and
the Herod of which Luke speaks, were different persons. Mat-
thew calls Herod a king; and Luke, chap. iii. v. 1, calls Herod,
Tetrach, (that is, Governor) of Galilee. But there could be no

232 EXAMINATION OF

such person as a king Herod, because the Jews and their country
were then under the dominion of the Roman Emperors who gov-
erned then by Tetrachs or Governors.

Luke, chap. ii. makes Jesus to be born when Cyrenius was
Governor of Syria, to which government Judea was annexed; and
according to this, Jesus was not born in the time of Herod. Luke
says nothing about Herod seeking the hfe of Jesus when he was
born ; nor of his destroying the children under two years old ; nor
of Joseph fleeing with Jesus into Egypt ; nor of his returning
from thence. On the contrary, the book of Luke speaks as if the
person it calls Christ had never been out of Judea, and that Her-
od sought his life after he commenced preaching, as is before
stated. I have already shown that Luke, in the book called the
Acts of the Apostles, (which commentators ascribe to Luke) con-
tradicts the account in Matthew, with respect to Judas and the
thirty pieces of silver. Matthew says, that Judas returned the
money, and that the high priests bought with it a field to bury
strangers in. Luke says, that Judas kept the money, and bought
a field with it for himself.

As it is impossible the wisdom of God should err, so it is im-
possible those books should have been written by divine inspiration.
Our belief in God, and his unerring Avisdom, forbids us to be-
lieve it. As for myself, I feel religiously happy in the total dis-
belief of it.

There are no other passages called prophecies in Luke than
those I have spoken of. I pass on to the book of John.

THE BOOK OF JOHN.

John, like Mark and Luke, is not much of a prophecy-monger.
He speaks of the ass, and the casting lots for Jesus' clothes,
and some other trifles, of which I have already spoken.

John makes Jesus to say, chap. v. ver. 46, " For had ye be-
lieved 3I0SCS, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me."
The book of tlie Acts, in speaking of Jesus, says, chap. iii. ver.
22, " For Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet shall the
liord your God raise up unto you, of your brethren, like unto me,
him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shalt say unto
you."

This passage is in Deuteronomy, chap, xviii. ver. 15. They
apply it as a prophecy of Jesus. What impositions ! The per-
son spoken of in Deuteronomy, and also in Numbers, where the
same person is spoken of, is Joshua, the minister of Moses,
and his immediate successor, and just such another Robespier-
rean character as Moses is represented to have been. The case,
as related in those books, is as follows : —

THE PROPHECIES. 233

Moses was grown old and near to his end, and in order to pre-
vent confusion after his death, for the Israehtes had no settled sys-
tem of government, it was thought best to nominate a successor
to Moses while he was yet living. This was done, as we are
told, in the following mannei" :

Numbers, chap, xxvii. ver. 12. " And the Lord said unto
Moses, get thee up into this mount Abarim, and see the land
which I have given unto the children of Israel — and when thou
hast seen it, thou also shall be gathered unto thy people as Aaron
thy brother is gathered, ver. 15. And Moses spake unto the
Lord, saying, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh,
set a man over the congregation — Which may go out before them,
and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out,
and which may bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord
be not as sheep that have no shepherd — And the Lord said unto
Moses, take thee Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the
spirit, and lay thine hand upon him — and set him before Eleazar,
the priest, and before all the congregation, and give him a charge
in their sight — and thou shalt put some of thine honour upon
him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be
obedient — ver. 22, and Moses did as the Lord commanded, and
he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest, and be-
fore all the congregation ; and he laid hands upon him, and gave
him charge as the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses."

I have nothing to do, in this place, with the truth, or the con-
juration here practised, of raising up a successor to Moses like
unto himself The passage sufficiently proves it is Joshua, and
that it is an imposition in John to make the case into a prophecy
of Jesus. But the prophecy-mongers were so inspired with
falsehood, that they never speak truth.*

* Newton, Bisliop of Bristol in England, published a work in three volumes, enti-
tled, " Dissertations on the Prophecies." The work is tediously written and tire-
some to read. He strains hard to make every passage into a prophecy that suits his
purpose. — Among others, he makes this expression of Moses, " the Lord shall raise
thee up a prophet like unto me," into a prophecy of Christ, who was not born, ac-
cording to the Bible chronologies, till fifieen hundred and fifty-two years after the time
of Moses, whereas it was ao immediate successor to Moses, who was then near his
end, that is spoken of in tiie passage above quoted.

This Bishop, the better to impose this passage on the world as a prophecy of Christ,
has entirely omitted the account in the book of Numljers which I have given at length,
word for word, and which shows, beyond the possibility of a doubt that the person
spoken of by Moses, is Joshua, and no other person.

Newton is but a superficial writer. He takes up things upon hear-say, and inserts
them without either examination or reflection, and the more extraordinary and io-
credible they are, the better he likes them.

In speaking of the walls of Babylon, (volume the first, page 263,) he makes a
quotation from a traveller of the name of Tavernur, whom he calls (by way of giv-
ing credit to what lie says,) a celebrated traveller, that those walls were made of
burnt brick, ten feet square and three feet thick. — If Newton had only thought of
calculating the weight of such a brick, he would have seen the imjxyssibility of their
lieing used or even made. A brick ten feet st|uare, and three feet thick, contains
three bundled cubic feet, and allowing a cubic foot of brick to be only one hundred

20*

234 EXAMINATIOX OF

I pass on to the last passage in these fables of the Evangelists
called a prophecy of Je^us Christ.

John having spoken cf Jesus expiring on the cross between
two thieves, says, chap. xix. ver. 32. " Then came the soldiers
and brake the legs of the first (meaning one of the thieves) and
of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came
to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his
legs — ver. 36, for these things were done that the Scripture
should be fulfilled, " A hone of him shall not be hrokeny

The passage here referred to is in Exodus, and has no more
to do with Jesus than with the ass he rode upon to Jerusalem ;
— nor yet so much, if a roasted jack-ass, like a roasted he-goat,
might be eaten at a Jewish passover. It might be some conso-
lation to an ass to know, that though his bones might be picked,
they would not be broken. I go to state the case.

The book of Exodus, in instituting the Jewish passover, in
which they were to eat a he-lamb or a he-goat, says, chap. xii.
ver. 5, " Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first
year ; ye shall take it from the sheep or from the goats. ''^

pounds, each of the Bisliop's bricks would weigh thirty thousand pounds ; and it would
take about thirty cart loads of clay (one horse carts) to make one brick.

But his account of the stones used in the building of Solomon's temple (volume 2d,
page 211,) far exceeds his bricks of ten feet square in the walls of Babylon; these
are but brick-bats compared to them.

The stones (says he) employed in the founc'ation, were in magnitude forty cubits,
that is, above sixty feet, a cubit, says he, bein%- somewhat more than one foot and a
half, (a cubit is one foot nine inches) and the superstructure (says this Bishop) was
worthy of such foundations. There were some litones, says he, of the whitest mar-
ble forty-five cubits long, five cubits high, and si\ cubits broad. These are the di-
mensions this Bishop has given, which in measire of twelve inches to a foot, is 78
feet nine inches long, 10 feet 6 inches broad, and S feet three inches thick, and con-
tains 7,2.34 cubic feet. I now go to demonstrate the imposition of this Bishop.

A cubic fr)ot of water weighs sixty-two pounds and a half — The specific gravity
of marble to water is as 2 1-2 is to one. The weight thercfori' of a cubic foot of mar-
ble is 156 poi\nds, which multiplied by 7,234, the number of cubic feet in one of those
stones, makes the weight of it to be 1,128,504 jjounds, which is 50.3 tons. Allowing
tlien a horse to draw about half a ton, it will retjuire a thousand horses to draw one
Buch stone on the ground ; how then were they to be lifted into the building by luiman
hands "?

The Bishop may talk of faith removing mountains, but all the faith of all the
Bishops that ever lived could not remove one of those stones and their bodily strength
given in.

This Bishop also tells of grea< guns used by the Turks at the taking of Constan-
tinople, one of which, he says, was drawn by seventy yoke of oxen, and by two thou-
sand men. Volume 3d, page 117.

The weight of a cannon that carries a ball of 43 pounds, which is the largest can-
non that are cast, weighs 8,000 pounds, about three tons ;ind a half, and may be
drawn by three yoke of oxen. Any body may now calcul.ile what the weight of tlie
Bishop's great gun must be, that reipiired seventy yoke of oxen to draw it. Thii
Bishop lx;ats Gulliver.

When men give up the use of the divine gift of reason in writing on any subject,
DC it religious or any thing else, there are no bounds to their extravagance, na limit
to their absurdities.

The three volumes wliich this Bishop has written on what he calls the prophecies^
contain above 1,290 pages, imd be says in vol. 3, page 117, " I httve atudied brevity."
This is as marvcll'ius as the Bislmp's great gun.

THE PROPHECIES. 235

The book, after stating some ceremonies to be used in killing
and dressing it (for it was to be roasted, not boiled) says, ver. 43,
" And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, this is the ordinance
of the passover : there shall no stranger eat thereof; but every
man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circum-
cised him, then shall he eat thereof. A foreigner shall not eat
thereof In one house shall it be eaten ; thou shalt not carry
forth aught of the flesh thereof abroad out of the house ; neither
shalt thou brake a bone thereof. ^^

We here see that the case as it stands in Exodus is a cere-
mony and not a prophecy, and totally unconnected with Jesus'
bones, or any part of hnn.

John having thus filled up the measure of apostolic fable, con-
cludes his book with something that beats all fable ; for he says
at the last verse, " And there are also many other things which
Jesus did, the which if they should be written every one, / sup-
pose that even the ivorld itself could not contain the books that should
be wr'ittcn.^^

This is what in vulgar life is called a thumper ; that is, not only
a lie, but a lie beyond the line of possibility ; besides which it is
an absurdity, for if they should be written in the world, the
world would contain them. — Here ends the examination of the
passages called prophecies.

I HAVE now, reader, gone through and examined all the pas-
sages which the four books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
quote from iJie Old Testament, and call them prophecies of Je-
sus Christ. When I first set down to this examination, I ex-
pected to find cause for some censure, but little did I expect to
find them so utterly destitute of truth, and of all pretensions to
it, as I have shown them to be.

The practice which the writers of those books employ is not
more false than it is absurd. They state some trifling case of
the person they call Jesus Christ, and then cut out a sentence
from some passage of the Old Testament, and call it a prophecy
of that case. But when the words thus cutout are restored to
the place they are taken from, and read with the words before
and after them, they give the lie to the New Testament, A
short instance or two of this will suffice for the whole.

They make Joseph to dream of an angel, who informs him
that Herod is dead, and tells him to come with the child out of
Egypt. They then cut out a sentence from the book of Hosea,
" Out of Egypt have I called my Son," and apply it as a prophecy
in that case.

The words " Md called my Son out of Egypt,'''' are in the Bi-
ble : — but what of that ? They are only part of a passage, and

1^36 EXAMINATION OP

not a whole passage, and stand immediately connected with oth-
er words, which show they refer to the children of Israel coming
out of Egypt in the time of Pharaoh, and to the idolatry they
eomniittcd afterwards.

Again, they tell us that when the soldiers came to break the
legs of the crucilied persons, tiiey found Jesus was already dead,
and therefore did not break his. They then, with some altera- '
tion of tlie original, cut out a sentence from Exodus, " a bone of
liim shctll not be byoken,'''' and apply it as a prophecy of that case.

Tiic words, " JVcilhc)' sliall ye break a bone ihcreof'' (for tiiey
have altered the text) are in the Bible — but what of that.' They
are, as in the former case, only part of a passage, and not a
wliole passage, and when read with the words they are immedi-
ately joined to, show it is the bones of a he-lamb or a he-goat of
which the passage speaks.

These repeated forgeries and falsifications create a well-found-
ed suspicion, that all the cases spoken of concerning the person
called Jesus Christ are made cases, on purpose to lug in, and that
very clumsily, some broken sentences from the Old Testament,
and apply them as prophecies of those cases ; and that so far
Ijom his being the Son of God, he did not exist even as a man
— th.at he is merely an imaginary or allegorical character, as
Apollo, IlercuLcs, Jupiter, and all tiie deities of antiquity were.
There is no history written at the time Jesus Christ is said to
have lived that speaks of the e.xistence of such a person, even as
a man.

Did we find in any other book pretending to give a system of
religion, the falsehoods, falsifications, contradictions, and absurd-
ities, which are to be met with in almost every page of the Old eind
New Testament, all the priests of the present day, who supposed
themselves capable, would triumphantly show their skill in criti-'
cism, and cry it down as a most glaring imposition. But since
the books in question belong to their own trade and profession,
they, or at least many of them, seek to stifle every inquiry into
them, and abuse those w ho have the honesty and the courage to
do it.

When a book, as is the case with the Old and New Testament,
is ushered into the world under the title of being the Word op
God, it ought to be examined with the utmost strictness, in order
to know if it has a well founded claim to that title or not, and
whether we are or are not imposed upon : for as no poison is so
dangerous as that which poisons the physic, so no falsehood is so
fatal as tliat which is made an article of faith.

This examination becomes more necessary, because when the
New Testament was written, I might say invented, the art of
printing was not known, and there were no other copies of the
Old Testament than written copies. A written copy of that book
would cost about as much as six hundred common printed bibles

THE PROPHECIES. 237

now cost. Consequently was in the liands but of very few per-
sons, and these chiefly of the church. This gave an opportuni-
ty to the writers of the New Testament to make quotations fiom
the Old Testament as they pleased, and call them prophecies,
with very little danger of being detected. Besides which, the
terrors and inquisitorial fury of the church, like what they tell
us of the flaming sword that turned every way, stood sentry over
the New Testament ; and time, which brings every thing else to
light, has served to thicken the darkness that guards it trom de-
tection.

Were the New Testament now to appear for the first time, ev-
ery priest of the present day would examine it line by line, and
compare the detached sentences it calls prophecies with the whole
passages in the Old Testament from whence they are taken.
Wliy then do they not make the same examination at this time,
as they would make had the New Testament never appeared be-
fore ? If it be proper and right to make it in one case, it is equal-
ly proper and right to do it in the other case. Length of time
can make no difference in the right to do it at any time. But in-
stead of doing this, they go on as their predecessors went on be-
fore them, to tell the people there are prophecies of Jesus Christ,
when the truth is there are none.

They tell us that Jesus rose from the dead, and ascended into
heaven. It is very easy to say so ; a great lie is as easily told
aa a little one. But it he had done so, those would have been
the only circumstances respecting him that would have differed
from the common lot of man ; and consequently the only case
that would apply exclusively to him, as prophecy, would be some
passage in the Old Testament that foretold such things of him.
But there is not a passage in the Old Testament that speaks of
a person, who, after being crucified, dead, and buried, should rise
from the dead, and ascend into heaven. Our prophecy-mongers
supply the silence the Old Testament guards upon such things,
by telling us of passages they call prophecies, and that falsely so,
about Joseph's dream, old clothes, broken bones, and such like
trifling stuff.

In writing upon this, as upon every other subject, I speak a
language full and intelligible. I deal not in hints and intimations.
I have several reasons for this : First, that I may be clearly un-
derstood. Secondly, that it may be seen I am in earnest. And
thirdly, because it is an affront to truth to treat falsehood with
complaisance.

I will close this treatise with a subject I have already touched
upon in the First Part of the Jlge of Reason.

The world has been amused with the term revealed religion,
and the generality of priests apply this term to the books called
the Old and New Testament. The Mahometans apply the same
term to the Koran. There is no man that believes in revealed

238 EXAMINATION OF

religion stronger than I do ; but it is not the reveries of the Old
and jVew Testament, nor of the Koran, that I dignify witli that
sacred title. That which is revelation to me, exists in something
which no human mind can invent, no human hand can counterfeit
or alter.

The Word of God is the Creation we behold ; and this word
of God revealeth to man all that is necessary for man to know
of his Creator.

Do we want to contemplate his power? Wc see it in the im-
mensity of his creation.

Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We see it in the un-
changeable order by which the incomprehensible whole is gov-
erned.

Do we want to contemplate his munificence? We see it in the
abundance with which he fills the earth.

Do we want to contemplate his mercy? We see it in his not
withholding that abundance, even from the unthankful.

Do we want to contemplate his will, so far as it respects man?
The goodness he shows to all, is a lesson for our conduct to each
other.

In fine — Do we want to know what God is? Search not the
book called the Scripture, which any human hand might make, or
any impostor invent ; but the scripture called the Creation.

When, in the first part of the Age of Reason, I called the
Creation the true revelation of God to man, I did not know that
any other person had expressed the same idea. But I lately met
with the writings of Doctor Conyers Middleton, published the
beginning of last century, in which he expresses himself in the
same manner with respect to the creation, us I have done in the
Age of Reason.

He was principal librarian of the University of Cambridge, in
England, which furnished him with extensive opportunities of
reading, and necessarily required he sliould be well acquainted
with the dead as well as the livinij lan";uajjes. He was a man
of a strong original mind ; had the courage to think for himself,
and the honesty to speak his thoughts.

He made a journey to Rome, from whence he wrote letters to
show that the forms and ceremonies of the Romisli Christian
Church were taken from the degenerate state of the licathen my-
thology, as it stood in the latter times of the Greeks and Romans.
He attacked without ceremony the miracles which the church
pretend to perform ; and in one of liis treatises, he calls the cre-
ation a rertlalion. The priests of Kiigland of tliat day, in order
to defend their citadel by first defending its out-works, attacked
him for attacking the Roman ceremonies ; and one of them cen-
sures hirn for calling the creation a revvlaliuii — he thus replies to
him :

" One of them," says he, " appears to be scandalized by the

THE PROPHECIES ' 239

title of revelalion, Mhich I have given to that discovery whicli
God made of himself in the visible works of his creation. Yet
it is no other than what the wise in all ages have given to it, who
consider it as the most authentic and indisputable revelation
Avhich God has ever given of himself, from the beginning of the
world to this day. It was this by which the first notice of him
was revealed to the inhabitants of the earth, and by which alone
it has been kept up ever since among the several nations of it.
From this the reason of man was enabled to trace out his nature
and attributes, and by a gradual deduction of consequences, to
learn his own nature also, with all the duties belonging to it which
relate either to God or to his fellow-creatures. This constitu-
tion of things was ordained by God, as an universal law or rule
of conduct to man — the source of all his knowledge — the test
of all truth, by which all subsequent revelations, which are sup-
posed to have been given by God in any other manner, must be
tried, and cannot be received as divine any further than as they
are found to tally and coincide with this original standard.

" It was this divine law which I referred to in the passage above
recited (meaning the passage on which they had attacked him)
being desirous to excite the reader's attention to it, as it would
enable him to judge more freely of the argument I was handling.
For by contemplating this law, he would discover the genuine
way which God himself has marked out to us for the acquisition of
true knowledge ; not from the authority or reports of our fellow-
cieatures, but from the information of the facts and material ob-
jects which in his providential distribution of worldly things, he
hath presented to the perpetual observation of our senses. For
as it was from these that his existence and nature, the most im-
portant articles of all knowledge, were first discovered to man,
so that grand discovery furnished new light towards tracing out
the rest, and made all the inferior subjects of human knowledge
more easily discoverable to us by the same method.

" I had another view likewise in the same passages, and ap-
plicable to the same end, of giving the reader a more enlarged
notion of the question in dispute, who, by turning his thoughts to
reflect on the works of the Creator, as they are manifested to us
in this fabric of the world, could not fail to observe, that they arc
all of them great, noble, and suitable to the majesty of his na-
ture, carrying with them the proofs of their origin, and showing
themselves to be the production of an all-wise and Almighty be-
ing ; and by accustoming his mind to these sublime reflections,
he will be prepared to determine, whether those miraculous in-
terpositions so confidently affirmed to us by the primitive fathers,
can reasonably be thought to make a part in the grand scheme
of the divine administration, or whether it be agreeable that God,
who created all things by his will, and can give what turn to
them he pleases by the same will, should, for the particular pur

240 EXAMINATION OF

poses of hi3 government ana the services of the church, descend
to the expedient of visions and revelations^ granted sometimes to
boys for the instruction of the elders, and sometimes to women
to settle the fashion arxl length of their veils, and sometimes to
pastors of the Church, to enjoin them to ordain one man a lec-
turer, another a priest ; — or that he should scatter a profusion of
miracles around the stake of a martyr, yet all of them vain and
insignificant, and without any sensible effect, either of preserv-
ing the life, or easing the sufferings of the saint ; or even of
mortifying his persecutors, who were always left to enjoy the full
triumph of their cruelty, and the poor martyr to expire in a mis-
erable death. When these things, I say, are brought to the orig-
inal test, and compared with the genuine and indisputable works
of the Creator, how minute, how trifling, how contemptible must
they be? — and how incredible must it be thought, that for the in-
struction of his church, God should employ ministers so preca-
rious, unsatisfactory, and inadequate, as the extasies of women
and boys, and the visions of interested priests, which were de-
rided at the very time by men of sense to whom they were pro-
posed.

" That this universal law (continues Middleton, meaning the
law revealed in the works of the creation) was actually revealed
to the heathen world long before the gospel was known, we learn
from all the principal sages of antiquity, who made it the capital
subject of their studies and writings.

" Cicero has given us a short abstract of it in a fragment still
remaining from one of his books on government, which I shall
here transcribe in his own words, as they will illustrate my sense
also, in the passages that appear so dark and dangerous to mv
antagonists."

" The true law (says Cicero,) is right reason conformable to
the nature of things, constant, eternal, diffused through all, which
calls us to duty by commanding — deters us from sin by forbidding ;
which never loses its influence with the good, nor ever preserves
it Mith the wicked. Tliis law cannot be over-ruled by any oth-
er, nor abrogated in wliolc or in part ; nor can we be absolved
from it cither by the senate or by the peojiie ; nor are we to seek
any other comment or interpreter of it but itself; nor can there
be one law at Rome and another at Athens — one now and anoth-
er hereafter ; hut the same eternal immutable law comprehends
all nations at all times, under one common master and governor
of all — God. He is (he inventor, propounder, enacter of this
law ; and whoever will not obey it must first renounce himself
and throw ofi' the nature of man ; by doing which, he will suffer
the greatest punishments, though he should escape all the other
torments which are commonly believed to be prepared for the
wicked." Here ends the quotation from Cicero.

" Our Doctors (continues Middleton) perhaps will look on this

THE PROPHECIES. 241

as RANK DEISM ; but let them call it what they will, I shall ever
avow and defend it as the fundamental, essential, and vital part
of all true religion." Here ends the quotation from Middleton.

I have here given the reader two sublime extracts from men
who lived in ages of time far remote from each other, but who
thought alike. Cicero lived before the time in which they tell us
Christ was born. Middleton may be called a man of our own
time, as he lived within the same century with ourselves.

In Cicero we see that vast superiority of mind, that sublimity
of right reasoning and justness of ideas which man acquires, not
by studying Bibles and Testaments, and the theology of schools,
built thereon, but by studying the Creator in the immensity and
unchangeable order of his creation, and the immutability of his
law. " There cannot,''^ says Cicero, " he one law now, and anoth-
er Iiereafter ; btit the same eternal immutable law comprehends all
nations, at all times, tinder one common master and governor of all
— God." But according to the doctrine of schools which priests
have set up, we see one law, called the Old Testament, given in
one age of the world, and another law, called the New Testa-
ment, given in another age of the world. As all this is contra-
dictory to the eternal immutable nature, and the unerring and
unchangeable wisdom of God, we must be compelled to hold
this doctrine to be false, and the old and the new law, called the
Old and the New Testament, to be impositions, fables, and for-
geries.

In Middleton, we see the manly eloquence of an enlarged mind,
and the genuine sentiments of a true believer in his Creator.
Instead of reposing his faith on books, by whatever name they
may be called, whether Old Testament or New, he fixes the cre-
ation as the great original standard by which every other thing
called the word, or work of God, is to be tried. In this we have
an indisputable scale, whereby to measure every word or work
imputed to him. If the thing so imputed carries not in itself the
evidence of the same Almightiness of power, of the same uner-
ring truth and wisdom, and the same unchangeable order in all
its parts, as are visibly demonstrated to our senses, and compre-
hensible by our reason, in the magnificent fabric of the universe,
that word or that work is not of God. Let then the two books
called the Old and New Testament be tried by this rule, and the
result will be, that the authors of them, whoever they were, will
be convicted of forgery.

The invariable principles, and unchangeable order, which reg-
ulate the movements of all the parts that compose the universe,
demonstrate both to our senses and our reason that its creator is
a God of unerring truth. But the Old Testament, besides the
numberless, absurd, and bagatelle stories it tells of God, repre-
sents him as a God of deceit, a God not to be confided in. Ezc-
kiel makes God to say, chap. 14, ver. 9, " And if the prophet bo
21

242 EXAMINATIOX OF

deceived wnen he hath spoken a thing, I, the Lord have deceived
that prophet. ^^ And at the 20th chap. ver. 25, he makes God, in
speaking of the children of Israel to say, " Wherefore I gave
them statittes that ivere not good, and judgments by which they could
not /ire."

This, so far from being the word of God, is horrid blasphemy
against him. Reader, put thy confidence in thy God, and put no
trust in the Bible.

The same Old Testament, after telling us that God created the
heavens and the earth in six days, makes the same almighty pow-
er and eternal wisdom employ itself in giving directions how a
nriest's (jarments should be cut, and what sort of stufFthev should
be made of, and what their offerings should be, gold, and silver,
and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and
goats hair, and rams' skins dyed red, and badger skins, &c. chap.
XXV. ver. 3 ; and in one of the pretended prophecies I have just
examined, God is made to give directions how they should kill,
cook, and eat a he-lamb or a he-goat. And Ezekiel, chap. iv. to
fill up the measure of abominable absurdity, makes God to order
him to take '■'■wheat, and barley, and beans, and leniiles, and millet,
and filches, and make a loaf or a cake thereof, and bake it with hu-
man dung and eat it ;" but as Ezekiel complained that this mess
was too strong for his stomach, the matter was compromised from
man's dung to cow dung, Ezckiol, chap. iv. Compare all this
ribaldry, blasphemously called the word of God, with tiie Al-
mighty power that created the universe, and whose eternal wis-
dom directs and governs all its mighty movements, and we shall
be at a loss to find a name sufliciently contemptible for it.

In the promises which the Old Testament pretends that God
made to his people, the same derogatory ideas of him prevail. It
makes God to promise to Abraham, that his seed should be like
the stars in heaven and the sand on the sea shore for multitude,
and that he would give them the land of Canaan as their inherit-
ance for ever. But observe, reader, how the performance of this
promise was to begin, and then ask thine own reason, if the wis-
dom of God,wlK)se power is equal to his will, could, consistently
with that power and that wisdom, make such a promise.

The performance of the promise was to begin, according to that
book, by four hundred years of bondage and afiliction. Genesis,
chap. XV. ver. 13, '■'■Jind God said unto Jibraham, know of a s}ircty,
that lltij seed shall be a siraiigtr in a land that is not theirs, and
shall serve than, and they shall ofiUcl Ihem four hundred ?;(.'«>•«."
This promise then to Abraham, and his seed for ever, to inherit
the land of Canaan, had it been a fact instead of a fable, was to
operate, in tlie coinrncncement of it, as a curse upon all the peo-
ple ami their children, and their children's children for four hun-
dred years.

THE PROPHECIES. 243

But the case is, the book of Genesis was written after the bond-
age in Egypt had taken place ; and in order to get rid of the dis-
grace of the Lord's chosen people, as they called themselves, be-
ing in bondage to the Gentiles, they make God to be the author
of it, and annex it as a condition to a pretended promise ; as if
God, in making that promise, had exceeded his power in perform-
ing it, and consequently his wisdom in making it, and was obliged
to compromise with them for one half, and with the Egyptians, to
whom they were to be in bondage, for the other half

Without degrading my own reason by bringing those wretched
and contemptible tales into a comparative view, with the Almighty
power and eternal wisdom, which the Creator hath demonstratea
to our senses in the creation of the universe, I will confine myself
to say, that if we compare them with the divine and forcible senti-
ments of Cicero, the result will be, that the human mind has de-
generated by believing them. Man in a state of grovelling super-
stition, from which he has not courage to rise, looses the energy
of his mental powers.

I will not tire the reader with more observations on the Old
Testament.

As to the New Testament, if it be brought and tried by that
standard, which, as Middleton wisely says, God has revealed to
our senses, of his Almighty power and wisdom in the creation and
government of the visible universe, it will be found equally as
false, paltry, and absurd, as the Old.

Without entering, in this place, into any other argument, that
the story of Christ is of human invention, and not of divine origin,
I will confine myself to show that it is derogatory to God, by the
contrivance of it ; because the means it supposes God to use, are
not adequate to the end to be obtained ; and therefore are derog-
atory to the Almightiness of his power, and the eternity of his
wisdom.

The New Testament supposes that God sent his Son upon
earth to make a new covenant with man ; which the church calls
the covenant of Grace, and to instruct mankind in a new doctrine,
which it calls Faith, meaning thereby, not faith in God, for Cicero
and all true Deists always had and always will have this ; but
faith in the person called Jesus Christ, and that whoever had not
this faith should, to use the words of the New Testament, be
DAMNED.

Now, if this were a fact, it is consistent with that attribute of
God, called his Goodness, that no time should be lost in letting
poor unfortunate man know it ; and as that goodness was united to
Almighty power, and that power to Almighty wisdom, all the means
existed in the hand of the Creator to make it known immediately
over the whole earth, in a manner suitable to the Almightiness of
his divine nature, and with evidence that would not leave man in
doubt ; for it is always incumbent upon us, in all cases, to believe

244 EXAMINATION OF

that the Almighty always acts, not by imperfect means as imper-
fect man acts, but consistently with his Almightiness. It is this
only that can become the infallible criterion by which we can pos-
sibly distinguish the works of God from the works of man.

Observe now, reader, how the comparison between the sup-
posed mission of Christ, on the belief or disbelief of which they
say man was to be saved or damned — observe, I say, how the
comparison between this and the Almighty power and wisdom
of God demonstrated to our senses in the visible creation, goes
on.

The Old Testament tells us that God created the heavens and
the earth, and every thing therein, in six days. The term aix
days is ridiculous enough when applied to God ; but leaving out
that absurdity, it contains the idea of Almighty power acting
unitedly with Almighty wisdom, to produce an immense worl^
that of the creation of the universe and every thing therein, in a
short time.

Now as the eternal salvation of a man is of much greater im-

Sortance than his creation, and as that salvation depends, as the
lew Testament tells us, on man's knowledge of, and belief in
the person called Jesus Christ, it necessarily follows from our
belief in the goodness and justice of God, and our knowledge of
his almighty power and wisdom, as demonstrated in the creation,
that ALL THIS, if true, would be made known to all parts of the
world, in as little time, at least, as was employed in making the
world. To suppose the Almighty would pay greater regard and
attention to the creation and organization of inanimate matter,
than he would to the salvation of innumerable millions of souls,
which himself had created, " as the image of himself ,^^ is to offer
an insult to his goodness and his justice.

Now observe, reader, how the promulgation of this pretended
salvation by a knowledge of, and a belief in Jesus Christ went
on, compared with the work of creation.

In the first place, it took longer time to make a child tharl to
make the world, for nine months were passed away and totally
lost in a state of pregnancy ; which is more than forty times
longer time than God employed in making the world, according
to the Bible account. Secondly ; several years of Chrtst's life
were lost in a state of human infancy. But tiic universe was
in maturity the moment it existed. Thirdly ; Christ, as Luke
asserts, was thirty years old before he began to preach what they
call his mission. Millions of souls died in the mean time with-
out knowing it. Fourthly ; it was above three hundred years
from that time before the book called the New Testament was
compiled into a written copy, before which time there was no
such book. Fifthly ; it was above a thousand years after that,
before it could be circulated ; because neither Jesus nor his
apostles had knowledge of, or were inspired with the art of print-

THE PROPHECIES. 245

ing : and consequently, as the means for making it universally
known did not exist, the means were not equal to the end, and
therefore it is not the work of God.

I will here subjoin the nineteenth Psalm, which is truly deist-
ical, to show how universally and instantaneously the works of
God make themselves known, compared with this pretended sal-
vation by Jesus Christ.

Psalm 19th. " The heavens declare the glory of God, and
the firmament showeth his handy work — Day unto day uttereth
speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge — There is no
speech nor language where their voice is not heard — Their line
is gene out through all the earth, and their words to the end of
the world. In them hath he set a chamber for the Sun. Which
is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as
a strong man to run a race — his going forth is from the end of
the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there is noth-
ing hid from the heat thereof"

Now, had the news of salvation by Jesus Christ been inscrib-
ed on the face of the Sun and the Moon, in characters that all
nations would have understood, the whole earth had known it in
twenty-four hours, and all nations would have believed it ; where-
as though it is now almost two thousand years since, as they tell
us, Christ came upon earth, not a twentieth part of the people of
the earth know any thing of it, and among those who do, the
wiser part do not believe it.

I have now reader gone through all the passages called proph-
ecies of Jesus Christ, and shown there is no such thing.

I have examined the story told of Jesus Christ, and compared
the several circumstances of it with that revelation, which, as
Middleton wisely says, God has made to us of his Power and
Wisdom in the structure of the universe, and by which every
thing ascribed to him is to be tried. The result is, that the story
of Christ has not one trait, either in its character, or in the means
employed, that bears the least resemblance to the power and
wisdom of God, as demonstrated in the creation of the universe.
All the means are human means, slow, uncertain and inadequate
to the accomplishment of the end proposed, and therefore the
whole is a fabulous invention, and undeserving of credit.

The priests of the present day profess to believe it. They
gain their hving by it, and they exclaim against something they
call infidelity. I will define what it is. He that believes m

THE STORY OF ChRIST IS AN InFIDEL TO GoD.

THOMAS PAINE

APPEIVDIX.

CONTRADICTORY DOCTRINES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

BETWEEN

MATTHEW AND MARK.

In the New Testament, Mark, chap. xvi. ver. 16, it is said,
" He that beheveth and is baptised shall be saved ; he that be-
lieveth not shall be damned." This is making salvation, or in
other words, the happiness of man after this life, to depend en-
tirely on believing, or on what Christians call faith.

But the 25th chapter of The Gospel according to Matthew
makes Jesus Christ to preach a direct contrary doctrine to The
Gospel according to Mark ; for it makes salvation, or the fiiture
happiness of man, to depend entirely on good ivorks ; and those
good works are not works done to God, for he needs them not,
but good works done to man.

The passage referred to in Matthew is the account there giv-
en of what is called the last day, or the day of judgment, where
the whole world is represented to be divided into two parts, the
righteous and the unrightoous, metaphorically called the sheep
and the goats.

To the one part called the righteous, or the sheep, it says,
" Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the beginning of the world — for I was an hungered
and ye gave me rneat — I was thirsty and ye gave me drink — I
was a stranger and ye took me in — Naked and ye clothed me —
I was sick and ye visited me — I was in prison and ye came unto
me.

" Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when
saw we thee an hungered and fed thee, or thirsty and gave thee
drink? When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in, or naked
and clothed thee ? Or when saw we thee sick and in prison, and
came unto thee ?

" And the king shall answer and say unto them, verihj I say
unto yoUy in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these
my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

Here is nothing about believing in Christ — nothing about that
phantom of the imagination called Faith. The works here spo-
ken of, are works of humanity and benevolence, or, in other
words, an endeavour to make God's creation happy. Here is
nothing about preaching and making long prayers, as if Go(i

243 APPENDIX.

must be dictated to by man ; nor about building churches and
meetings, nor hiring priests to pray and preach in them. Here
is nothing about predestination, that lust which some men have
for damning one another. Here is nothing about baptism,
whether by sprinkling or plunging, nor about any of those cere-
monies for which the Christian church has been fighting, perse-
cuting, and burning each other, ever since the Christian church
began.

If it be asked, why do not priests preach the doctrine contain-
ed in this chapter ^ The answer is easy ; — they are not fond of
practising it themselves. It does not answer for their trade.
Tiiey had rather get than give. Chai-ity with them begins and
ends at home.

Had it been said, Come ye blessed, ye have been liberal in pay-
ing the preachers of the word, ye have conttibuted largely toivards
building churches and meeting-houses, there is not a hired priest
in Christendom but would have thundered it continually in the
ears of his congregation. But as it is altogether on good works
done to men, the priests pass over it in silence, and they will
abuse me for bringing it into notice.

THOMAS PAIXE.

MY

PRIVATE THOUGHTS

ON A

FUTURE STATE.

I HAVE said in the first part of the Age of Reason, that "7
Jwpefor happiness after this life.''^ This hope is comfortable to
me, and I presume not to go beyond the comfortable idea of
hope, with respect to a future state.

I consider myself in the hands of my Creator, and that he
will dispose of me after this life, consistently with his justice and
goodness. I leave all these matters to him as my Creator and
friend, and I hold it to be presumption in man to make an arti-
cle of faith as to what the Creator will do with us hereafter.

I do not believe because a man and a woman make a child,
that it imposes on the Creator the unavoidable obligation of
keeping the being so made in eternal existence hereafter. It is
in his power to do so, or not to do so, and it is not in our power
to decide which he will do.

The book called the New Testament, which I hold to be fab-
ulous, and have shown to be false, gives an account in the 25th
chapter of Matthew, of what is there called the last day, or the
day of judgment. The whole world, according to that account,
is divided into two parts, the righteous and the unrighteous, figu-
ratively called the sheep and the goats. They are then to receive
their sentence. To the one, figuratively called the sheep, it
says, " Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre-
pared for you from the foundation of the world." To the other,
figuratively called the goats, it says, " Depart from me, ye curs-
ed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."

Now the case is, the world cannot be thus divided — the moral
world, like the physical world, is composed of numerous degrees
of character, running imperceptibly one into the other, in such
a manner that no fixed point of division can be found in either.
That point is no where, or is every where. The whole world
might be divided into two parts numerically, but not as to moral
character ; and therefore the metaphor of dividing them, as
sheep and goats can be divided, whose difference is marked by
their external figure, is absurd. All sheep are still sheep ; all
goats are still goats; it is their physical nature to be so. But
one part of the world are not all good alike, nor the other part

250 APPENDIX,

all wicked alike. There are some exceedingly good ; others ex-
ceedingly wicked. There is another description of men who
cannot be ranked with either the one or the other — they belong
neither to the sheep nor the goats.

My own opinion is, that those whose lives have been spent in
doing good, and endeavouring to make their fellow-mortals hap-
py, for this is the only way in which we can serve God, loill be
happy hereafter ; and that the very wicked will meet with some
punishment. This is my opinion. It is consistent with my idea
of God's justice, and with the reason that God has given me.

THOMAS PAINE.

EXTRACT FROM A REPLY

TO THE

BISHOP OF LLAJVDAFF.

[This extract from Mr. Paine's reply to Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, was given by
him, not long before his death, to Mrs. Palmer, widow of Elihu Pahner. He retain-
ed the work entire, and therefore must have transcribed this part, which was unusual
for him to do. Probablj- he had discovered errors, which he corrected in the copy.
Mrs. Palmer presented it to the editor of a periodical work entitled the Theophilan-
tliropist, published in New-Yoik, in which it appeared in 1810.]

GENESIS.

The Bishop says, '^fhp oldest book in the world is Genesis."
This is mere assertion ; he offers noproof of it, and I go to con-
trovert it, and to show that the book of Job, which is not a He-
brew book, but is a book of the Gentiles, translated into Hebrew,
is much older than the book of Genesis.

The book of Genesis means the book of Generations ; to which
are prefixed two chapters, the first and second, which contain two
different cosmoganies, that is, two different accounts of the crea-
tion of the world, written by different persons, as I have shown
in the preceding part of this work.*

The first cosmogany begins at the first verse of the first chap-
ter, and ends at the end of the third verse of the second chapter ;
for the adverbial conjunction thus, with which the second chapter
begins, shows those three verses to belong to the first chapter.
The second cosmogany begins at the fourth verse of the second
chapter, and ends with that cliapter.

In the first cosmogany the name of God is used without any
epithet joined to it, and is repeated thirty-five times. In the se-
cond cosmogany it is always the Lord God, which is repeated
eleven times. These two different styles of expression show tliese
two chapters to be the work of two difterent persons, and the con-
tradictions they contain, show they cannot be the work of one and
the same person, as I have already shown.

The third chapter, in which the style of Lord God is continued
m every instance, except in the supposed conversation between
the woman and the serpent (for in every place in that chapter
where the writer speaks, it is always the Lord God) shows this
chapter to belong to the second cosmoganv.

* Sec Letter to Ertkine, page 161.

252 REPLY TO THE BISHOP

This chapter gives an account of what is called the fall of man,
which is no other than a, fable borrowed from, and constructed
upon the religion of Zoroaster, or the Persians, or the annual pro-
gress of the sun through the twelve signs of the Zodiac. It is the
fall of the year, the approach and evil of winter, announced by the
ascension of the autumnal constellation of the serpent of the Zo-
diac, and not the moral/«// of man that is the key of the allegory,
and of the fable in Genesis borrowed from it.

The fall of man in Genesis, is said to have been produced by
eating a certain fruit, generally taken to be an apple. The fall
of the year is the season for gathering and eating the new apples
of that year. The allegory, therefore, holds with respect to the
fruit, which it would not have done had it been an early summer
fruit It holds also with respect to place. The tree is said to
have been placed in the midst of the garden. But why in the
midst of the garden more than in any other place.'' The solution
of the allegory gives the answer to this question, which is, that the
fall of the year, when apples and other autumnal fruits are ripe,
and when days and nights are of equal length, is the mid-season
between summer and winter.

It holds also with respect to clothing, and the temperature of
the air. It is said in Genesis, chap. iii. ver. 21, Unto Adam and
his IV fe did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them.^^
But why are coats of skins mentioned.^ This cannot be under-
stood as referring to any thing of the nature o^ moral evil. The
solution of the allegory gives again the answer to this question,
which is, that the evil of winter, which follows the fcdl of the year,
fabulously called in Genesis the fall of man, makes warm clothing
necessary.

. But of these things I shall speak fully when I come in another
part to treat of tlie ancient religion of the Persians, and compare
it with the modern religion of the New Testament.* At present,
I shall confine myself to the comparative antiquity of the books
of Genesis and Job, taking, at the same time, whatever I may find
in my way with respect to the fabulousness of the book of Gene-
sis ; for if what is callcMJ the fall of man in Genesis be fabulous or
allegorical, that which is called the redemption in the New Tes-
tament cannot be a fact. It is morally inij)ossiblc, and impossi-
ble also in the nature of things, that moral good can redeem phy-
sical evil. I return to the Bishop.

If Genesis be, as the Bishop asserts, the oldest book in the
world, and, consequently, the oldest and lust written book of
the Bible, and if the extraordinary things related in it, such as
the creation of the world in six days, the tree of life, and of good
and evil, the story of Eve and the talking serpent, the fall of man
and his being turned out of paradise, were tacts, or even believed
by the Jews to be facts, they would be referred to as fundamen-

» Not rubiisheJ.

OP LLANDAFF. 253

tal matters, and that very frequently in the books of the Bible
that were written by various authors afterwards ; whereas there
is not a book, chapter, or verse of the Bible, from the time Mo-
ses is said to have written the book of Genesis, to the book of
Malachi, the last book in the Bible, including a space of more
than a thousand years, in which there is any mention made of
these things, or any of them, nor are they so much as alluded to.
How will the Bishop solve this difficulty, which stands as a cir-
cumstantial contradiction to his assertion ?

There are but two ways of solving it :

First, that the book of Genesis is not an ancient book ; that
it has been written by some (noAv) unknown person after the re-
turn of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, about a thousand
years after the time that Moses is said to have lived, and put as
a preface or introduction to the other books, when they were
formed into a canon in the time of the second temple, and, there-
fore not having existed before that time, none of these things
mentioned in it could be referred to in those books.

Secondly, that admitting Genesis to have been written by Mo-
ses, the Jews did not believe the things stated in it to be true,
and, therefore, as they could not refer to them as facts, they
would not refer to them as fables. The first of these solutions
goes against the antiquity of the book, and the second against its
authenticity, and the Bishop may take which he pleases.

But be the author of Genesis whoever he may, there is abund-
ant evidence to show, as well from the early Christian writers,
as from the Jews themselves, that the things stated in that book
were not believed to be facts. Why they have been believed as
facts since that time, when better and fuller knowledge existed
on the case, than is known now, can be accounted for only on
the imposition of priestcraft.

Augustine, one of the early champions of the Christian church,
acknowledges in his Ciiy of God, that the adventure of Eve and
the serpent, and the account of Paradise, were generally consid-
ered as fiction or allegory. He regards them as allegory him-
self, without attempting to give any explanation ; but he supposes
that a better explanation might be found than those that had
been offered.

Origen, another early champion of the churcli, says, " What
man of good sense can ever persuade himself that there were a
first, a second, and a third day, and that each of these days had
a night, when there were yet neither sun, moon, nor stars. What
man can be stupid enough to believe that God, acting the part
of a gardener, had planted a garden in the east, that the tree of
life was a real tree, and that its fruit had the virtue of making
those who eat of it live for ever .'"

JMarmonides, one of the most learned and celebrated of the
Jewish Rabbins, who lived in the eleventh century (about seven

22

254 REPLY TO THE BISHOP

or eight hundred years ago) and to whom the Bishop refers in
his answer to me, is very expUcit, in his book entitled More JVe-
bachim, upon the non-reahty of the things stated in the account
of the Creation in the book of Genesis.

" We ought not (says he) to understand, nor take according
to the letter, that which is written in the book of the Creation, nor
to have the same ideas of it with common men ; otherwise, our
ancient sages would not have recommended, with so much care,
to conceal the sense of it, and not to raise the allegorical veil
which envelopes the truth it contains. The book of Genesis,
taken according to the letter, gives the most absurd and the most
extravagant ideas of the Divinity. Whoever shall find out the
sense of it, ought to restrain himself from divulging it. It is a
maxim which all our sages repeat, and above all with respect to
the work of six days. It may happen that some one, with the
aid he may borrow from others, may hit upon the meaning of it.
In that case, he ought to impose silence upon himself ; or if he
speak of it, he ought to speak obscurely, and in an enigmatical
manner, as I do myself, leaving the rest to be found out by those
who can vmderstand."

This is, certainly, a very extraordinary declaration of Marmo-
nides, taking all the parts of it.

First, he declares, that the account of the Creation in the book
of Genesis is not a fact ; that to believe it to be a fact, gives the
most absurd and the most extravagant ideas of the Divinity.

Secondly, that it is an allegory.

Thirdly, tliat the allegory has a concealed secret.

Fourthly, that whoever can find the secret ought not to tell it.

It is this last part that is the most extraordinary. Why all
this care of the Jewish Rabbins, to prevent what they call the
concealed meaning, or the secret from being known, and if known,
to prevent any of their people from telling it ? It certainly must
be something which the Jewish nation are afraid or ashamed the
world should know. It must be something personal to them as
a people, and not a secret of a divine nature, which the more it is
known, the more it increases the glory of the Creator, and the
gratitude and happiness of man. It is not God's secret, but their
own, they are keeping. I go to unveil the secret.

The case is, the Jews have stolen their cosmogany, that is,
their account of the Creation, from the cosmogany of the Per-
sians, contained in the book of Zoroaster, tl»e Persian lawgiver,
and brought it witii them wlien they returned from captivity by
the benevolence of Gyrus, King of Persia ; for it is evident,
from the silence of all the '>ooks of the Bible upon the subject
of the Creation, that the Jews had no cosmogany before that
time. If tliey had a cosmogany from the time of Moses, some
of their judges who governed during more than four hundred
vears, or of tiicir kings, the Davids and Solomons of their day,

OF LLAiXDAFF. 255

who governed nearly five hundred years, or of their prophets
and psalmists, who Hved in the meantime, would have mention-
ed it. It would, either as fact or fable, have been the grandest
of all subjects for a psalm. It would have suited to a tittle the
ranting, poetical genius of Isaiah, or served as a cordial to the
gloomy Jeremiah. But not one word nor even a whisper, does
any of the Bible authors give upon the subject.

To conceal the theft, the Rabbins of the second temple have
published Genesis as a book of Moses, and have enjoined secresy
to all their people, who by travelling or otherwise might happen
to discover from whence the cosmogany was borrowed, not to
tell it. The evidence of circumstances is often unanswerable,
and there is no other than this which I have given, that goes to
the whole of the case, and this does.

Diogenes Laertius, an ancient and respectable author, whom
the Bishop, in his answer to me, quotes on another occasion, has
a passage that corresponds with the solution here given. In
speaking of the religion of the Persians as promulgated by their
priests or magi, he says, the Jewish Rabbins were the succes-
sors of their doctrine. Having thus spoken on the plagiarism,
and on the non-reality of the book of Genesis, I will give some
additional evidence that Moses is not the author of that book.

Eben-Ezra, a celebrated Jewish author, who lived about seven
hundred years ago, and whom the Bishop allows to have been a
man of great erudition, has made a great many observations, too
numerous to be repeated here, to show that Moses was not, and
could not be, the author of the book of Genesis, nor any of the
five books that bear his name.

Spinosa, another learned Jew, who lived about a hundred and
thirty years ago, recites, in his treatise on the ceremonies of the
Jews, ancient and modern, the observations of Eben-Ezra, to
which he adds many others, to show that Moses is not the author
of tiiese books. He so says, and shows his reasons for say-
ing it, that .the Bible did not exist as a book, till the time of the
Maccabees, v/hich was more than a hundred years after the
return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity.

In the second part of the Age of Reason, I have, among oth-
er things, referred to nine verses in the 3Gth chapter of Genesis,
beginning at the 31st verse, " These are the kings that reigned
in Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of
Israel," which it is impossible could have been written by Moses,
or in the time of Moses, and could not have been written till
after tiie Jew kings began to reign in Israel, which was not till
several hundred years after the time of Moses.

The Bishop allows this, and says, " T think you say true."
But he then quibbles, and says, that a small addition to a book
does not destroy either the genuineness or authenticity of the
whole book. This is priestcraft. These verses do not stand

256 REPLY TO THE BISHOP

in the book as an addition to it, but as making a part of the
whole book, and which it is impossible that Moses could write.
The Bishop would reject the antiquity of any other book if it
could be proved from the words of the book itself that a part of
it could not have been written till several hundred years after the
reputed author of it was dead. He would call such a book a
forgery. I am authorized, therefore, to call the book of Gene-
sis a forgery.

Combining, then, all the foregoing circumstances together re-
specting the antiquity and authenticity of the book of Genesis, a
conclusion will naturally loUow therefrom; those circumstances
are,

First, that certain parts of the book cannot possibly have been
written by Moses, and that the other parts carry no evidence of
having been written by him.

Secondly, the universal silence of all the following books of
the Bible, for about a thousand years, upon the extraordinary
things spoken of in Genesis, such as the creation of the world
in six days — the garden of Edon — the tree of knowledge — ^the
tree of life — the story of Eve and the serpent — the fall of man,
and his being turned out of this fine garden, together with Noah's
flood, and the tower of Babel.

Thirdly, the silence of all the books of the Bible upon even
the name of Moses, from the book of Joshua until the second
book of Kings, which was not written till after the captivity, for
it gives an account of the captivity, a period of about a thou-
sand years. Strange that a man who is proclaimed as the histo-
rian of the Creation, the privy-counsellor and confidant of the
Almighty — the legislator of the Jewish nation, and the founder
of its religion ; strange, I say, that even the name of such a
man should not find a place in their books for a thousand years,
if they knew or believed any thing about him, or the books he is
said to have written.

Fourthly, the opinion of some of the most celebrated of the
Jewish commentators, that Moses is not the author ot the book
of Genesis, founded on the reason's given for that opinion.

Fifthly, the opinion of the early Christian writers, and of the
great champion of Jewish literature, Marmonides, that the book
of Genesis is not a book of facts.

Sixthly, the silence imposed by all the Jewish Rabbins, and by
Marmonides himself, upon the Jewish nation, not to %pcak of any
thing they may happen to know, or discover, respecting the cos-
mogany (or creation of the world) in the book of Genesis.

From these circumstances the following conclusions ofTcr :

First, that the book of Genesis is not a book of facts.

Secondly, that as no mention is made throughout the Bible of
any of the extraordmary things related in Genesis, that it has not
been written till after the other books were written, and put as a

OF LLANDAFF. 257

preface to the Bible. Every one knows that a preface to a book,
tiioiigh it stands first, is the last written.

Tl'.irdly, that the silence imposed by all the Jewish Rabbins,
and by JMarnionides upon the Jewish nation, to keep silence up-
on every thing related in their cosmogany, evinces a secret they
are not willing should be known. The secret therefore explains
itself to be, that when the Jews were in captivity in Babylon and
Persia, they became acquainted with the cosmogany of the Per-
sians, as registered in the Zend-Avesta, of Zoroaster, the Per-
sian lawgiver, which after their return from captivity they man-
ufactured and modelled as their own, and anti-dated it by giving
to it the name of Moses. The case admits of no other explana-
tion. From all which it appears that the book of Genesis, in-
stead of being the oldest book in the world, as the Bishop calls it,
Las been the last written book of the Bible, and that the cosmog-
any it contains has been manufactured.

Ox\ THE Names in the Book of Genesis.

Every thing in Genesis serves as evidence or symptom, that
the book has been composed in some late period of the Jewish
nation. Even the names mentioned in it serve to this purpose.

Nothing is more common or more natural, than to name the
children of succeeding generations, after the names of those who
had been celebrated in some former jjeneration. This holds
good with respect to all the people, and all the histories we know
of, and it docs not hold good with the Bible. There must be
some.cause for tliis.

This book of Genesis tells us of a man whom it calls Adam,
and of his sons Abel and Seth ; of Enoch, who lived 365 years
(it is exactly the number of days in a year,) and that then God
took him up. It has the appearance of being taken from some
allegory of the Gentiles on the commencement and termination
of the year, by the progress of the sun through the twelve signs
of the Zodiac, on which the allegorical religion of the Gentiles
was founded.

It tells us of Methuselah who lived 969 years, and of a long
train of other names in the fifth chapter. It then passes on to a
man whom it calls Noah, and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet :
then to Lot, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and his sons, with which
the book of Genesis finishes.

All these, according to the account given in that book, were
the most extraordinary and celebrated of men. They were,
moreover, heads of families. Adam was the father of the^ >vorld.
Enoch, for his righteousness, was taken up to heaven. Methu-
selah lived to almost a thousand years. He was the son of
Enoch, the man of 365, the number of days in a year. It has
the appearance of being the continuation of an allegory on the

22*

258 REPLY TO THE BISHOP

365 days of a year, and its abundant productions. Noah was
selected from all the world to be preserved when it was drowned,
and became the second father of the world. Abraham was the
father of the faithful multitude. Isaac and Jacob were the in-
heritors of his fame, and the last was the father of the twelve
tribes.

Now, if these very wonderful men and their names, and the
book that records them, had been known by the Jews before the
Babylonian captivity, those names would have been as common
among the Jews befure that period as they have been since. We
now hear of thousands of Abrahams, Isaacs, and Jacobs arnong
the Jews, but there were none of that name before t!ie Psubyloni-
an captivity. The Bible does not mention one, thougli from the
time that Abraham is said to have lived, to the time of tbe Baby-
lonian captivity, is about 1400 years.

How is it to be accounted for that there have been so many
thousands, and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Jews of the
names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob since that period, and not
one before .'' It can be accounted for but one way, which is,
that before the Babylonian captivity the Jews had no such books
as Genesis, nor knew any thing of the names and persons it men-
tions, nor of the things it relates, and that the stories in it have
been manufactured since that time. From the Arabic name
Ibrahim (Avhich is the manner the Turks write that name to this
day) the Jews have, most probably, manufactured their Abra-
ham.

I will advance my observations a point further, and speak of
the names of Moses and ^tiuron, mentioned for the first time in
the book of Exodus. There arc now, and have continued to be
from the time of the Babylonian captivity, or soon after it, thou-
sands of Jews of the names of Moses and Jiaron^ and v.e read
not of any of that name before that time. The l>ible does not
mention one. The direct inference from this is, that (he Jews
knew of no such book as Exodus before the Babylonian captivi-
ty. In fact, that it did not exist before that time, and that it is
only since the book lias been invented, tl:at the names of Moses
and Aaron have been common among the Jews.

It is applicable to the purpose to observe, that the picturesque
■work, called Mosaic-work, spelled the same as you would say the
Mosaic account of the Creation, is not derived from the word
Moses, but from JiLises (the Muses,) because of the variegated and
picturesque pavement in the tem])les dedicated to the Afiisrs. This
carries a strong iiri|>lic;ition tiiat the name Alusrs is drawn from the
same source, and tliat he is not a real l)ut an allegorical person, as
Marmonides describes wliat is cjilled the Mosaic account of the
Creation to be.

I will go a point still further. The Jews now know the book of
Genesis, and the names of all the persons mentioned in the first

OF LLANDAFF. 259

len chapters of that book, from Adam to Noah: yet we do not hear
(I speak for myscU') of any Jew, of the present day, of the name
of Adam, Abel, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah,* Shem, Ham,
or Japhet, (names mentioned in the first ten chapters) though
these were, according to the account in that book, the most extra-
oi"dinary of all the names that make up the catalogue of the Jew-
ish chronology.

The names the Jews now adopt, are those that are mentioned
in Genesis after the tenth chapter, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, &c.
How then does it happen, that they do not adopt the names found
in the first ten chapters ? Here is evidently a line of division
drawn between the first ten chapters of Genesis, and the remain-
ing chapters, with respect to the adoption of names. There must
be some cause for this, and I go to offer a solution of the problem.

The reader will recollect the quotation I have already made
from the Jewish Rabbin Marmonides, wherein he says, " We
ought not to understand nor to take according to the letter that
which is written in the book of the Creation. It is a maxim (says
he) which all our sages repeat above ally with respect to the work
of six days."

The qualifying expression above all^ implies there are other
parts of the book, though not so important, that ought not to be
understood or taken according to the letter, and as the Jews do not
adopt the names mentioned in the first ten chapters, it appears evi-
dent those chapters are included in the injunction not to take them
in a literal sense, or according to the letter ; from which it fol-
lows, that the persons or characters mentioned in the first ten chap-
ters, as Adam, Abel, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, and so on to Noah,
are not real but fictititous or allegorical persons, and therefore the
Jews do not adopt their names into their families. If they atfixed
the same ideaof reality to them as they do to those that follow af-
ter the tenth chapter, the names of Adam, Abel, Seth, &.c. would
be as common among the Jews of the present day, as are those of
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Aaron.

In the superstition they have been in, scarcely a Jew family
would have been without an Enoch, as a presage of his going to
heaven as ambassador for the whole family. Every mother who
wished that the days of her son might be long in the land would call
him Methuselah ; and all the Jews that might have to traverse the
ocean would be named Noah, as a charm against shipwreck and
drowning.

This is domestic evidence against the book of Genesis, which,
joined to the several kinds of evidence before recited, show the
book of Genesis not to be older than the Babylonian captivity, and
to be fictitious. I proceed to fix the character and antiquity of
the book of

* Noah is an exception ; tl)ere are of tliat name among the Jews. Editor.

260 REPLY TO THE BISHOP

JOB.

The book of Job has not the least appearance of being a book
of the Jews, and though printed among the books of the Bible,
does not belong to it. There is no reference in it to any Jewish
law or ceremony. On the contrary, all the internal evidence it
contains shows it to be a book of the Gentiles, either of Persia or
Chaldea.

The name of Job does not appear to be a Jewish name. There
is no Jew of that name in any of the books of the Bible, neither is
there now that I ever heard of The country where Job is said
or supposed to have lived, or rather where the scene of the drama
is laid, is called ITz, and there was no place of that name ever be-
longing to the Jews. If Uz is the same as Ur, it was in Chaldea,
the country of the Gentiles.

The Jews can give no account how they came by this book,
nor who was the author, nor the time when it was written. Ori-
gen, in his work against Celsus (in the first ages of the Christian
church,) says, that the book of Job is older than Moses. Ebcn-Ez-
ra, the Jewish commentator, whom (as I have before said) the
Bishop allows to have been a man of great erudition, and who cer-
tainly understood liis own language, says, that the book of Job has
been translated from another language into Hebrew. Spinosa,
another Jewish commentator of great learning, confirms the opin-
ion of Eben-Ezra, and says moreover, " Je crois que Job etait
Gentie ;"* I believe that Job was a Gentile.

The Bishop (in his answer to me) says, " that the structure of
the whole book of Job, in whatever light of history or drama it
be considered, is founded on the belief that prevailed with the
Persians and Chaldeans, and other Gentile nations, of a good and
an evil spirit."

In speaking of the good and evil spirit of the Persians, the
Bishop writes them Jinmanius and Oromasclcs. I will not dis-
pute about the orthography, because I know that translated
names are ditTercntly spelled in different languages. But he
has nevertheless made a capital error. He has put the Devil
first ; for Arimanius, or, as it is more generally written, Jihriman,
is the evil spint, and Oromasdes or Ormusd the good spirit. He
has made tlie same mistake, in the same paragraph, in speaking
of the good and evil spirit of the ancient Egyptians Osiris and
Typlw, he puts Typho before Osiris. The error is just the same
as if the Bishop, in writing about the Christian religion, or in
preaching a sermon, were to say the Devil and God. A priest
ought to know liis own trade hotter. We agree, however, about
the structure of the book of Job, that it is Gentile. I have said

* Spinopa on ihc Ceremonies of the Jews, page 296, pul>IislieJ in French at Am-
■terdain, 1678.

OF LLANUAFF. 261

in the second part of the Age of Reason, and given my reasons
for it, that the drama of it is not Hebrew.

From the testimonies I have cited, tha. of Origen, who, about
fourteen hundred years ago, said that the book of Job was more
ancient than Moses, that of Eben-Ezra, who in his commentary
on Job, says, it has been translated from another language (and
consequently fi-om a Gentile language) into Hebrew ; that of
Spinosa, who not only says the same thing, but that the author
of it was a Gentile ; and that of the Bishop, who says that the
structure of the whole book is Gentile. It follows then, in the
first place, that the book of Job is not a book of the Jews orig-
inally.

Then, in order to determine to what people or nation any book
of religion belongs, we must compare it with the leading dogmas
and precepts of that people or nation ; and therefore, upon the
Bishop's own construction, the book of Job belongs either to the
ancient Persians, the Chaldeans, or the Egyptians ; because the
structure of it is consistent with the dogma they held, that of a
good and evil spirit, called in Job, God and Satan, existing as
distinct and separate beings, an»d it is not consistent with any
dogma of the Jews.

The belief of a good and an evil spirit, existing as distinct and
separate beings, is not a dogma to be found in any of the books
of the Bible. It is not till we come to the New Testament that
we hear of any such dogma. There the person called the Son
of God, holds conversation with Satan on a mountain, as familiar-
ly as is represented in the drama of Job. Consequently the Bish-
op cannot say, in this respect, that the New Testament is
founded upon the Old. According to the Old, the God of the
Jews was the God of every thing. All good and all evil came
from him. According to Exodus it was God, and not the Devil,
that hardened Pharaoh's heart. According to the book of Sam-
uel it was an evil spirit from God that troubled Saul. And Eze-
kiel makes God to say, in speaking of the Jews, ''■J gave them the
statides that were not good, and judgments by which they should not
live.^^ The Bible describes the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Ja-
cob in such a contradictory manner, and under such a two-fold
character, there would be no knowing when he was in earnest
and when in irony ; when to believe, and when not. As to the
precepts, principles, and maxims, in the book of Job, they show
that the people, abusively called the heathen in the books of the
Jews, had the most sublime ideas of the Creator, and the most
exalted devotional morality. It was the Jews who dishonoured
God. It was the Gentiles who glorified him. As to the fabulous
personifications introduced by the Greek and Latin poets, it was
a corruption of the ancient religion of the Gentiles, which con-
sisted in the adoration of a first cause of the works of the creation,
in which the sun was the great visible agent.

S62 REPLY TO THE BISHOP

It appears to have been a religion of gratitude and adoration,
and not of prayer and discontented solicitation. In Job we find
adoration and submission, but not prayer. Even the ten com-
mandments enjoin not prayer. Prayer has been added, to devo-
tion, by the church of Rome, as the instrument of fees and per-
quisites. All prayers by the priests of the Christian church,
whether public or private, must be paid for. It may be right,
individually, to pray for virtues, or mental instruction, but not
for things. It is an attempt to dictate to the Almighty in the
government of the world. But to return to the book of Job.

As the book of Job decides itself to be a book of the Gentiles,
the next thing is to find out to what particular nation it belongs,
and lastly, what is its antiquity.

As a composition, it is sublime, beautiful, and scientific : full
of sentiment, and abounding in grand metaphorical description.
As a drama, it is regular. The dramatis persona;, the persons
performing the several parts, are regularly introduced, and speak
without interruption or confusion. The scene, as I have before
said, is laid in the country of the Gentiles, and the unities, though
not always necessary in a drama, are observed here as strictly
as the subject would admit.

In the last act, where the Almighty is introduced as speaking
from the whirlwind, to decide the controversy between Job and
his friends, it is an idea as grand as poetical imagination can
conceive. ^^ hat follows of Job's future p'rosperity does not be-
long to it as a drama. It is an epilogue of the writer, as the
first verses of the first chapter, whicli gave an account of Job,
his country and his riches, are the prologue.

The book carries the appearance of being the work of some
of the Persian Magi, not only because the structure of it corres-
ponds to the dogmas of the religion of those people, as founded by
Zoroaster, but from the astronomical references in it to the constel-
lations of the Zodiac and other o!)jccts in the heavens, of which
the sun, in their religion called INIithra, was the chief Job, in
describing the power of God (Job ix. v. 27,) .'^ays, " Who com-
mandeth the sun, and it riscth not, and sealeth up the stars —
who alone spieadcth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the
waves of the sea — who maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades,
and the ciiambers of the south." All thi^r astronomical allusion
is consistent with the religion of the P»M-sians.

Establishing then the book of Job, as the work of some of the
Persian or Eastern Magi, the case naturally inllows, that when
the Jews returned from captivity, by the permission of Cyrus,
king of Persia, they brought this book wiui them : had it trans-
lated into Hebrew, and put into tlieir scriptural canons, which
were not formed fill after their return. This will account for
the name of Job being mentioned in Kzekiel {Ezckicl, chap. xiv.
V. 14,) who was one of the captives, and also for its not bein<r

OF LLANDAFF. 263

mentioned in any book said or supposed to have been written be-
fore the captivity.

Among the astronomical alkisions in the book, there is one
which serves to fix its antiquity. It is tliat where God is made
to say to Job, in the style of reprimand, " Canst thou bind the
sweet injluences of Pleiades.''^ (Cliap. xxxviii. vcr. 31.) As the
explanation of this depends upon astronomical calculation, I will,
for the sake of those who would not otherwise understand it, en-
deavour to explain it as clearly as the subject will admit.

The Pleiades are a cluster of pale, milky stars, about the size
of a man's hand, in the constellation of Taurus, or in English,
the Bull. It is one of the constellations of the Zodiac, of which
there are twelve, answering to the twelve months of the year.
The Pleiades are visible in tiie winter nights, but not in the sum-
mer nights, being then below the horizon.

The Zodiac is an imaginary belt or circle in the heavens, eigh-
teen degrees broad, in which the sun apparently makes his an-
nual course, and in which all the planets move. When the sun
appears to our view to be between us and the group of stars form-
inf such or such a constellation, he is said to be in that constel-
lation. Consequently the constellation he appears to be in, m the
summer, are directly opposite to those he appeared in, in the win-
ter, and the same with respect to spring and autumn.

The Zodiac, besides being divided into twelvf; constellations,
is also, like every other circle, great or small, divided into 360
equal parts, called degrees ; consequently each constellation con-
tains 30 degrees. The constellations of the Zodiac are gene-
rally call'=:d signs, to distinguish them from the constellations
that are placed out of the Zodiac, and this is the name I shall
now use.

The precession of the equinoxes is the part most difficult
to explain, and it is on this that the explanation chiefly depends.

The equinoxes correspond to the two seasons of the year,
when the sun makes equal day and night.

The following is a disconnected part of the smne tvork, and tvas
first published in 1824.

SABBATH OR SUNDAY.

The seventh day, or more properly speaking tlie period of
seven days, was originally a numerical division of time, and noth-
ing more ; and had th3 bishop been acquainted with the history
of astronomy he would have known this. The annual revolution
of the earth makes what we call a year.

264 REPLY TO THE BISHOP

The year is artificially divided into months, the months into
weeks of seven days, the days into hours, Stc. The period of
seven days, Hke any other of the artificial divisions of the year,
is only a fractional part thereof, contrived for the convenience of
counters.

It is ignorance, imposition, and priest-craft, that have called it
otherwise. They might as well talk of the Lord's month, of the
Lord's week, of the Lord's hour, as of the Lord's day. All time
is his, and no part of it is more holy or more sacred than another.
It is however necessary to the trade of a priest that he should
preach up a distinction of days.

Before the science of astronomy was studied and carried to
the degree of eminence to which it was by the Egyptians and
Chaldeans, the people of those times had no other helps, than
what common observation of the very visible changes of the sun
and moon afforded, to enable them to keep an account of the pro-
gress of time. As far as history establishes the point, the Egyp-
tians were the first people who divided the year into twelve
months. Herodotus, who lived above two thousand two hundred
years ago, and is the most ancient historian whose works have
reached our time, says, theij did this hij the knowledge ikey had of
the stars. As to the Jews, there is not one single improvement
in any science or in any scientific art, that they eveV produced.
They were the n»ost ignorant of all the illiterate world. If the
word of the Lord had come to them, as they pretend, and as the
bishop professes to believe, and that they were to be the harbin-
gers of it to the rest of the world ; the Lord would have taught
them the use of letters, and the art of printing ; for without
the means of communicating the word it could not be communi-
cated ; whereas letters were the invention of the Gentile world ;
and printing of the modern world. But to return to my sub-
ject—

Before the helps which the science of astronomy afforded, the
people as before said, had no other, whereby to keep an account
of the progress of time, than what the common and very visible
changes of the sun and moon afforded. They saw that a great
number of days made a year, but the account of them was too
tedious, and too difficult to be kept numerically, from one to
three hundred and sixty five ; neither did they know the true
time of a solar year. It therefore became necessary, for the pur-
pose of marking the progress of days, to put them into small par-
cels, such as are now called weeks ; and which consisted as
they now do of seven days. By this means the memory was
assisted as it is with us at this day ; for we do not say of any-
thing tliat is past, that it was (iffy, sixty, or seventy days ago, but
that it was so many weeks, or if longer time, so many months. It
is impossible to keep an accoimt of time without helps of this kind.

Julian Scaliger, the inventor of the Julian period of 7,980

OF LLAiNDAFF 265

years, produced by multiplying the cycle of the moon, the cycle
of the sun, and the years of an indiction, 19, 28, 15 into each
other ; says, that the custom of reckoning by periods of seven
days was used by the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Hebrews,
the people of India, the Arabs, and by all the nations of the
East.

In addition to wh^Jt Scaliger says, it is evident that in Britain,
in Germany, and the north of Europe, they reckoned by periods
of seven days, long before the book called the bible was known
in those parts ; and consequently that they did not take that
mode of reckoning from any thing written in that book.

That they reckoned by periods of seven days, is evident
from th-eir having seven names and no more for the several
days ; and which have not the most distant relation to any thing
in the book of Genesis, or to that which i3 called the fouith
commandment.

Those names are still retained in England, with no other al-
teration than what has been produced by moulding the Saxon and
Danish languages into modern English.

1. Sun-day from Sunne the sun, and dag, day, Saxon, Sondag
Danish. The day dedicated to the sun.

2. Monday, that is, moonday, from Mona, the moon, Saxon,
Moano, Danish. Day dedicated to the moon.

3. Tuesday, that is Tuis-co^s-day. The day dedicated to the
Idol Tuisco,

4. Wednes-day, that is Woden's-day. The day dedicated to
JVodcn, the mars of the Germans.

5. Thursday, that is, Thor's-day dedicated to the Idol llior.

6. Friday, that is Friga''s-day, The day dedicated to Friga,
the Venus of the Saxons,

Saturday from Seaten (Saturn) an Idol of the Saxons ; one of
the embi. ms representing time, which continually terminates
and renews itself : The last day of the period of seven days.
When we see a certain mode of reckoning general among na-
tions totally unconnected, differing from each other in religion
and in government, and some of them unknown to each other,
we may be certain that it arises from some natural and common
cause, prevailing alike over all, and which strikes every one in
the same manner Thus all nations have reckoned arithmetic-
ally by tens, because the people of all nations have ten fingers.
If they had more or less than ten, the mode of arithmetical reck-
oning would have followed that number, for the fingers are a
natural numeration table to all the world. I now come to show
why the period of seven days is so generally adopted.

Though the sun is the great luminary of the world, and the ani-
mating cause of all the fruits of the earth, the moon by renewing
herself more than twelve times oftener than the sun, which it does
but once a year, served the rustic world as a natural Almlinac,

23

266 PEPLY TO THE BISHOP

as the fingers served it for a numeration table. All the world
could see the moon, her changes, and her monthly revolutions ;
and their mode of reckoning time, was accommodated as nearly
as could possibly be done in round numbers, to agree with the
changes of that planet, their natural almanac.

The Moon performs her natural revolution round the earth in
twenty nine days and a half She goes from a new moon to a
half moon, to a full moon, to a half moon gibbous or convex,
and then to a new moon again. Each of these changes is per-
formed in seven days and nine hours; but seven days is the
nearest division in round numbers that could be taken ; and this
was suflicient to .suggest the universal custom of reckoning by
periods of seven days, since it is impossible to reckon time with-
out some stated period.

How the odd hours could be disposed of without interfering
with the regular periods of seven days, in case the ancients re-
commenced a new Septenary period with every new moon, re-
quired no more difficulty than it did to regulate the Egyptian
Calendar afterwards of twelve months of thirty days each, or the
odd hour in the Julian Calendar, or the odd days and hours in
the French Calendar. In all cases it is done by the addition of
complementary days ; and it can be done in no otherwise.

The bishop knows, that as the Solar year does not end at the
termination of what we call a day, but runs some hours into the
next day, as the quarters of the moon runs some hours beyond
seven days ; that it is impossible to give the year any fixed num-
ber of days, that will not in course of years become wrong, and
make a complementary time necessary to keep the nominal year
parallel with the solar year. The same must have been the case
with those who regulated time formerly by lunar revolutions. —
They would have to add three days to every second moon, or in
that proportion, in order to make the new moon and the new week
commence together, like the nominal year and the solar year.

Diodorus of Sicily, who, as before said, lived before Christ was
born, in giving an account of times much anterior to his own,
speaks of years, of three months, of four months, and of six months.
These could be of no other than years composed of lunar revolu-
tions, and therefore to bring the several periods of seven days, to
agree Avith such years, there must have been complementary days.

The moon was the'first Almanac the world knew ; and the on-
ly one which the face of the heavens aflorded to common specta-
tors. Iler changes and her revolutions have entered into all the
Calendars that have been known in the known world.

The division of the year into twelve months, which, as before
shown, was first done by the Egyptians, though arranged with
a.strononiica! knowledge, had reference to the twelve m° ons, or
more properly speaking, to the twelve lunar revolutions that ap-
pear m the space of a solar year ; as the period of seven days had

OF LLANDAFF. 267

reference to one revolution of the moon. The feasts of the Jews
were, and those of the Christian Church still are regulated by the
moon. The Jews observed the feasts of the new moon and full
moon, and therefore the period of seven days was necessary to
them.

AH the feasts of the Christian Church are regulated by the
moon. That called Easter governs all the rest, and the moon
governs Easter. It is always the first Sunday after the first full
moon that happens after the vernal Equinox, or 21st of March.

In proportion as the science of astronomy was studied and im-
proved by the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and the solar year reg-
ulated by astronomical observations, the custom of reckoning by
lunar revolutions became of less use, and in time discontinued.
But such is the harmony of all parts of the machinery of the uni-
verse, that a calculation made from the motion of one part will
correspond with some other.

The period of seven days deduced from the revolution of the
moo.. Qund the earth, corresponded nearer than any other period
of days* .Vould do to the revolution of the earth round the sun.
Fifty-two periods of seven days make 364, which is within one
day and some odd hours of a solar year ; and there is no other
periodical number that will do the same, till we come to the num-
ber thirteen, which is too great for common use, and the num-
bers before seven are too small. The custom, therefore, of reck-
oning by periods of seven days, as best suited to the revolution of
the moon, applied with equal convenience to the solar year, and
became united with it. But the decimal division of time, as reg-
ulated by the French calendar, is superior to every other method.

There is no part of the bible, that is supposed to have been writ-
ten by persons who lived before the time of Josiah, (which was a
thousand years after the time of Moses,) that mentions any thing
about (he Sabbath, as a day consecrated by that which is called
the fourth commandment, or fhat the Jews kept any such day.
Had any such day been kept, during the thousand years of which
lam speaking, it certainly would have beenmentioned frequently,
and that it should never be mentioned, is strong, presumptive, and
circumstancial evidence that no such day was kept. But mention
is often made of the feasts of the new-moon, and of the full-moon;
for the Jews, as before shown, worshipped the moon ; and the
word sahhath was apphed by the Jews to the feasts of that planet,
and to those of their other deities. It is said in Hosea, chap. 2,
ver 11, in speaking of the Jewish nation, "And I will cause all
her mhth to cease, her feast-days, her new-moons and her sab-
baths, and all her solemn feasts." Nobody will be so foolish as to
contend that the sabbaths here spoken of are Mosaic sabbaths.
The construction of the verse implies they are lunar sabbaths, or
sabbaths of the moon. It ought also to be observed that Hosea
lived in the time of Ahaz and Hezekiah, about seventy years be-

268 REPLY TO THE BISHOP

fore the time of Josiah, when the law called the law of Moses ts
said to have been found ; and consequently, the sabbaths that
Hosea speaks of are sabbaths of the Idolatry.

When those priestly reformers, (impostors I should call them)
Hilkiah, Ezra, emd Nehemiah, began to produce books under the
name of the books of Moses, they found the word sabbath in use ;
and as to the period of seven days, it is, like numbering arithmet-
ically by tens, from time immemorial. But having found them in
use, they continued to make them serve to the support of their
new imposition. They truniped up a story of the creation being
made in six days, and of the Creator resting on the seventh, to suit
with the lunar and chronological period of seven days ; and they
manufactured a commandment to agree with both. Impostors al-
ways work in this manner. They put fables for originals, and
causes for effects.

There is scarcely any part of science, or any thing in nature,
which those impostors and blasphemers of science, called priests,
as well Christians as Jews, have not, at some time or other, per-
verted, or sought to pervert to the purpose of superstition and
falsehood. Every thing wonderful in appearance, has been as-
cribed to angels, to devils, or to saints. Every thing ancient has
some legendary tale annexed to it. The common operations of
nature have not escaped their practice of corrupting every thing.

FUTURE STATE.

The idea of a future state was an universal idea to all nations
except the Jews. At the time and long before Jesus Christ and
the men called his disciples were born, it had been sublime-
ly treated of by Cicero in his book on old age, by Plato, Socra-
tes, Xenophon, and other of the ancient theologists, whom the
abusive Christian church calls Heathen. Xenophon represents
the elder Cyrus speaking after this manner : —

" Think not my dearest children, that when I depart from you,
I shall be no more ; but remember that my soul, even while I
lived among you, was invisible to you ; yet by my actions you
were sensible it existed in this body. Believe it therefore exist-
ing still, though it be still unseen. How quickly would the hon-
ors of illustrious men perish after death, if their souls performed
nothing to preserve their fame ? For my own part, I could
never think that the soul, while in a mortal body, lives ; but when
departed from it, dies ; or that its consciousness is lost, when it
is discharged out of an unconscious habitation. But when it is
freed from all corporeal aHiance, it is then that it truly exists."

Since then the idea of a future existence was universal, it may
be asked, what new doctrine does the New Testament contain ?

OF LLANDAFF. 269

I answer, that of corrupting the theory of the ancient theolo^ists,
by annexing to it the heavy and gloomy doctrine of the resurrec-
tion of the body.

As to the resurrection of the body, whether the same body or
another, it is a miserable conceit, fit only to be preached to
man as an animal. It is not worthy to be called doctrine. — Such
an idea never entered the brain of any visionary but those of the
Christian church : — yet it is in this that the novelty of the New
Testament consists. All the other matters serve but as props
to this, and those props are most wretchedly put together.

MIRACLES.

The Christian church is full of miracles. In one of the churches
of Brabant, they show a number of cannon balls, which they say,
the virgin Mary, in some former war, caught in her muslin apron
as they came roaring out of the cannon's mouth, and prevented
their hurting the Saints of her favourite army. She does no
such feats now-a-days. Perhaps the reason is, that the infidels
have taken away her muslin apron. They show also, between
Montmatre and the village of St. Dennis, several places where
they say St. Dennis stopt with his head in his hands after it had
been cut oft' at Montmatre. The Protestants will call those things
lies ; and where is the proof that all the other things called mir-
acles are not as great Pies as those.

[T!icre appears to be an omission here in the copy."]

Christ, say those Cabalists, came in ihefuhiese of time. And
pray what is the fulness of time ? The words admit of no idea.
They are perfectly Cabalistical. Time is a word invented to de-
scribe to our conception a greater or less portion of eternity. It
may be a minute, a portion of eternity measured by the vibration
of a pendulum of a certain length : — it may be a day, a year, a
hundred, or a thousand years, or any other quantity. Those
portions are only greater or less comparatively.

The Word fulness applies not to any of them. The idea of ful-
ness of time cannot be conceived. A \voman with child and
ready for delivery, as Mary was when Christ was born, may be
said to have gone her full time ; but it is the woman that is full,
not time.

It may also be said figuratively, in certain cases, that the times
are full of events ; but time itself is incapable of being full of it-
self Ye hypocrites ! learn to speak intelligible language.

It happened to be a time ot peace when they say Christ waa
born ; and what then ? There had been many such intervals ;
and have been many such since. Time was no fuller in any of

270 REPLY TO THE BISHOP

them than in the other. If he were he would be fuller now than
he ever was before. If he was full then he must be bursting now.
But peace or war have relation to circumstances, and not to
time ; and those Cabalists would be at as much loss to make out
any meaning to fulness of circumstances, as to fulness oftrme ;
and if they could, it would be fatal ; for fulness of circumstances
would mean, when there is no more time to follow.

Christ, therefore, like every other person, was neither in the
fulness of one nor the other.

But thouo-h we cannot conceive the idea of fulness of time,
because we cannot have conception of a time when there shall
be no time ; nor of fulness of circumstance, because we cannot
conceive a state of existence to be without circumstances ; we
can often see, after a thing is past, if any circumstance, neces-
sary to give the utmost activity and success to that thing, was
wanting at the time that thing took place. If such a circimv
stance was wanting, we may be certain that the thing whicli took
place, was not a thing of God's ordaining ; whose woik is always
perfect means. They tell us that Christ was the Son of God ;
in that case, he would have known every thing ; and he came
upon earth to make known the will of God to man throughout
the whole earth. If this had been true, Christ would have
known and would have'been furnished with all the possible means
of doing it ; and would have instructed mankind, or at least his
apostles, in the use of such of the means as they could use them-
selves to facilitate the accomplishment of the mission ; conse-
quently he would have instructed them in the art of printing,
for the press is the tongue of t!ie world ; and without which his
or their preaching was less than a whistle compared to thunder.
Since then he did not do this, he had not the means necessary
to the mission ; and consequently had not the mission.

They tell as in the book of Acts, chap. ii. a very stupid story
of the Apostles' having the gift of tongues ; and cloven tongues of
fire descended and sat upon each of them. Perhaps it was this
story of cloven tongues that gave rise to the notion of slitting
Jack-daws' tongues to make them talk. Be that however as it
may, the gifts of tongues, even if it were true, would be but of lit-
tle use without the art of printing. I can sit in my chamber as I
do while writing this, and by the aid of printing, can send the
thoughts I am writing through tlie greatest part of Europe, to the
East Indies, and over all North America, in a few months. They
had not the means, and the want of means detects the pretended
mission.

There are three modes of communication. Speaking, writing
and printing. The first is exceedingly limited. A man's voice
can be heard but a few yards of distance ; and his person can be
but in one place.

or LLAXDAFF. 271

Writing is much more extensive ; but the thing written cannot
be multiplied but at great expense, and the multiplication will be
slow and incorrect. Were there no other means of circulating
what priests call the word of God (the Old and New Testament)
than by writing copies, those copies could not be purchased at less
than forty pounds sterling each ; consequently but few people
could purchase them, while the writers could scarcely obtain a
livelihood by it. But the art of printing changes all the cases, and
opens a scene as vast as the world. It gives to man a sort of di-
vine attribute. It gives to him mental omnipresence. He can
be every where and at the same instant ; for wherever he is read
he is mentally there.

The case applies not only against the pretended mission of
Christ and his Apostles, but against every thing that priests call
the word of God, and against all those who pretend to deliver it ;
for had God ever delivered any verbal word, he would have taught
the means of communicating it. The one without the other is
inconsistent with the wisdom we conceive of the Creator.

The third chapter of Genesis, verse 21, tells us that God made
coats of skins and clothed Adam and Eve. It was infinitely more
important that man should be taught the art of printing, than that
Adam should be taught to make a pair of leather breeches, or his
wife a petticoat.

There is another matter, equally striking and important, that
connects itself with those observations against this pretended word
of God, this manufactured book, called Revealed Religion.

We know that whatever is of God's doing is unalterable by man
beyond the laws which the Creator has ordained. We cannot
make a tree grow with the root in the air and the fruit in the
ground ; we cannot make Iron into Gold, nor Gold into Iron ; we
cannot make rays of light shine forth rays of darkness, nor dark-
ness shine forth light. If there were such a thing, as a word of
God, it would possess the same properties which all his other
works do. It would resist destructive alteration. But we see
that the book which they call the word of God, has not this prop-
erty. That book says. Gen. chap. i. v. 27, " So God created
man in his oxon image ;" but the printer can make it say, So man
created God in his own image. The words are passive to every
transposition of them, or can be annihilated and others put in their
places. This is not the case with any thing that is of God's do-
ing ; and therefore this book called the word of God, tried by the
same universal rule which every other of God's works within our
reach can be tried by, proves if self to be a forgery.

The bishop says, that " miracles are proper proofs of a divine mis-
sion." Admitted. But we know that men, and especially priests,
can tell lies, and call them miracles. It is therefore necessary,
that the thing called a miracle be proved to be true, and also to

272 REPLY TO THE BISHOP.

be miraculous ; before it can be admitted as proof of the thing
called revelation.

The bishop must be a bad logician not to know that one
doubtfu4 thing cannot be admitted as proof that anothe» doubtful
thing is true. It Would be like attempting to prove a liar not to
be a liar, by the evidence of another who is as great a liar as
himself.

Though Jesus Christ, by being ignorant of the art of printing,
sliows he had not the means necessary to a divine mission, and
consequently had no such mission ; it does not follow that if
he had known that art, the divinity of what they call his mission
would be proved thereby, any more than it proved the divinity
of the man who invented printing. Something, therefore, be-
yond printing, even if he had known it, was necessary as a inira-
ile, to have proved that what he delivered was the word of God ;
and this was that the book in which that word should be contained,
which is now called the Old and New Testament, should pos-
sess the miraculous property, distinct from all human books, of
resisting alteration. This would be not only a miracle, but an
ever existing and universal miracle ; whereas those which they
tell us of, even if they had been true, were momentary and lo-
cal ; they would leave no trace behind, after the lapse of a few
years, of having ever existed : But this would prove, in all ages
and in all places, the book to be divine and not human, as effectu-
ally, and as conveniently, as aquafortis proves gold to be gold by
not being capable of acting upon it ; and detects all other metals
and all counterfeit composition, by dissolving them. Since then
the only miracle capable of every proof is wanting, and which ev-
ery thing that is of divine origin possesses ; all the tales of mira-
cles with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit on-
ly for impostors to preach and fools to believe.

ORIGIN OF FREE-31ASONRY.

PREFACE BY THE EDITOR.

This tract is a chapter belonging to the third part of the Age
of Reason, as will be seen by the references made in it to pre-
ceding articles, as forming a part of the same work. It was
culled from the writings of Mr. Paine, after his death, and pub-
lished in a mutilated state, by Mrs. Bonneville, his executrix.
Passages having a reference to the Christian religion she eras-
ed, wiih a view, no doubt, of accommodating the work to the pre-
judices of bigotry. These however have been restored from the
original manuscript, excepting a few lines which were rendered
illegible.

The masonic society had committed nothing to print until the
year 1722, when Doct. Anderson's book of constitutions, kc.
was ordered by the Grand Lodge to be printed. Since that time
the masons have published many works respecting the fraternity,
all of which, through design or want of information, tend to ob-
scure and embarrass the subject ; and as the society had adopted
the custom of the Anglo Saxon priests, called Druids, to keep
their proceedings an entire secret, mankind in general, including
the greater portion of the brethren themselves, have remained
in utter ignorance in regard to its establishment and original in-
tention. Various speculations therefore continue to be made re-
specting the origin of the society, and its views at the time of its
formation ; and Mr. Paine, among the rest, with all his sagacity,
has suffered himself to be most egregiously deceived by such
writings of the masons as had fallen into his hands. These writ-
ers, in giving an account of the society, take up the history of
architecture as far back as any record of it has survived the
wreck of time. Wherever they can trace in history, whether
true or fabulous, any account of noble and grand structures, they
presumptuously pronounce them to have been raised by their so-
ciety. The pyramids of Egypt, the tower of Babel whose exis-
tence is doubted, and Solomon's temple, about which there has
probably been much lying, are all claimed by them. For what
is this ridiculous parade, but to make the uninitiated, as well
as their own members, few of whom know any thing about it,
wonder at the astonishing antiquity of the institution? Would
not the advice of Pope apply in this case ?

" Go ! and pretend your family is young,

Nor own your fathers have been fcols so long."

274 PREFACE.

If the antiquity of a sect or society proved its utility, or that
it was founded in correct principles, the religion taught by the
ancient Egyptian priests, or Judaism, ought to be preferred to
Christianity.

There is no possible use to be derived from deception upon
this subject. The masonic society is undoubtedly very ancient ;
having commenced, in the city of York, in England, in the early
part of the tenth century of the Christian era ; and from thence
it spread into other parts of Europe. It was formed by men
who had some knowledge of rude architecture, such as it was at
that day, and working masons ; and had no other view than im-
provement in the art or craft of masonry ; which their writers
dignify with the title of royal crajl, because some of their Kings
have condescended to become members of the society, for the pur-
pose, no doubt, of flattering their subjects to persevere in im-
provements in the art of building ; which was useful to them, as
they always stand in need of palaces, castles, and churches.
The society is composed of free men, none others are admitted,
hence the term, free masons. At first there were but three de-
grees, apprentice, fellow-craft, that is, one who had served an
apprenticeship, and was entitled to wages as a journeyman ; and
master-mason. The latter degree entitled its possessor to con-
tract for building on his own account. It was not until the be-
ginning of the eighteenth century, that any one, according to
the regulations of the society, could be admitted a member,
who did not labour at the trade of masonry, or knew something
of architecture ; aUhough, perhaps, through favour, some were
smuggled in who had very little or no knowledge of that art.*

As to the mysteries of the craft, so much talked of, they are
of the same nature as those of carpentry, or any other trade ;
and consist in a knowledge of the art of masonry ; which was
thought much more of at the time the society was instituted, than
at the present day. The trilling rites and ceremonies, which the
masons borrowed from the ancient Druids, are mere allegories,

* The Author of this Picfuco, altliough he has thrown considerate light upon the
Bubjcct, has Ixjen himself deceived l)y masonic writers in respect to the origin of the
existing society of Freemasons ; which is entirely speculative, and was instituted at
the time when, l:e says, pel sons not heins; masons l)y trade were fust admitted as
members, vi/.. in the early part of the eigliteenth cenlurj. Late writers have shown,
that '.he first Lodge ever estahli.-hed upon the existing speculative plan, was formed in
lx)iulon, in 1717; and that a similar society was formed in fcjcoilami, in 1736. These
two lodges soon Ix-gan to ((uarrel about precedency ; each endeavouring to prove ita
priority bv existing records (if the humlile mechanical societies of lidiouring masons,
wliich had been establishe<l in both kingdoms many centuries Iw-fore. The Yorkites,
iu England, it is believed, produced die oldest documents : both societies, iiowever,
cotitinucd lo grant dispensations for fornikig lodges in fcjreign countries.

From these two s'imces all the Freemason societies, upon the pretent est.'iljlisliment,
owe their origin. Nothing of the kind evtT existed in F.uro|)e, or any other quarter
cf the woild, previoiislv to 1717. Although ostetM-ibly founded upon a society of leal
working masons, ooiliing is now uuiglit i.-i it, nor ever bus been, of tiiat art, or any
other uit or scienc*. — V.v.

PREFACE. 275

and symbolical signs and words, serving as a medium of secresy,
by means of whicb the members of the society are enabled to
recognize each other.

There is no more propriety in prefixing the term free to ma-
sonry, than there is to carpentry, smithery, or to any other trade.
It is inapplicable to any art or trade ; although it may be applied
to the professors of it. At the time the free masons' society was
first instituted in England, there were in that kingdom both free
men and slaves in all the mechanical trades then in use. Dr.
Henry, in his history of Great Britain, giving an account of the
different ranks of people, &c. from 449 to 1066, after stating that
slavery had been in some degree meliorated, observes, " But af-
ter all these mitigations of the severities of slavery, the yoke of
servitude was still very heavy, and the greater part of the labour-
ers, mechanics, and common people, groaned under that yoke at
the conclusion of this period." Which was 140 years after the
establishment of the masonic society.

All the writers upon this subject, who are members of the so-
ciety, endeavour to conceal the origin and object of it. For
what reason it is difficult to imagine, except it be to keep the
world in amazement respecting it. Or, perhaps, their pride in-
duces them to contemn the humble, though laudable and useful
purposes for which the institution was formed. Enough however
has appeared in the old records which they have published to es-
tablish the view I have taken of it, and which, when I com-
menced this preface, I intended to have inserted ; but finding
they would extend to too great a length, I am under the neces-
sity of omitting them. I will however make a few extracts from
the old charges of the Free and Accepted Masons, collected
from their old records, at the command of the Grand Master, by
James Anderson, D. D. Approved by the Grand Lodge, and
ordered to be printed in the first edition of the book of consti-
tutions; on March 25, 1722.

" Concerning God and religion. A mason is obliged, by his
tenure, to obey the moral law ; and if he rightly understands the
art, he will never be a stupid atheist, nor an irreligious libertine.
But though in ancient times masons were charged in every
country to be of the religion of that country or nation, whatever
it was, yet it is nowthought more expedient only to oblige them
to that religion in which all men agree, leaving their particular
opinions to themselves ; that is, to be good men and true, or
men of honour and honesty, by whatever denominations or per-
suasions they may be distinguished ; whereby masonry becomes
the centre of union, and the means of conciliating true friend-
ship among persons, that must have remained at a perpetual
distance.*

♦William Preston, j-ast master of the lodge of antit^uky, in his IllustrutlcnB of
masonry, makes Uie following reiiuiik.s on the same subject. " llic spirit of the ful-

o

276 PREFACE.

Of Lodges. A lodge is a place where masons assemble and
work ; hence tliat assembly, or duly orgauKcd society of ma-
sons, is called a lodge ; and every brother ought to belong to
one, and to be subject to its Bj-Laws and the general regu-
lations.

The persons admitted members of a lodge, must be good and
true men, free-born, and of mature and discreet age, no bond-
men, no women, no immoral or scandalous men, but of good
report.

Of apprtnliccs. Candidates may know, that no master should
take an apprentice, unless he has sufficient employment for him,
and unless he be a perfect youth, having no maim or defect in
his body, that may render him incapable of learning the art, of
serving his master's lord, and of being made a brother, and then
a fellow-craft in due time, even after he has served such a term
of years, as the custom of the country directs ; and that he
should be descended of honest parents.

Of the management of the craft in xcorkiiig. All Masons shall
work honestly on working days, that they may live creditably on
holy days ; and the time appointed by the law of the land, or
confirmed by custom, shall be observed.

The most expert of the fellow-craftmen shall be chosen or ap-
pointed the master or overseer of the Lord's work ; who is to
be called master by those that work under him. The crafts-
men are to avoid all ill language, and to call each other by no
disobliging name, but brother or fellow j and to behave them-
selves courteously within and without the lodge.

The master, knowing himself to be able of cunning, shall un-
dertake the Lord's work as reasonably as possible, and truly dis-
pend his goods as if they were his own ; nor give more wages
to any brother or apprentice, than he really may deserve.

Both the master and the masons receiving their wages justly,
shall be faithful to the Lord, and honestly finish their work,
whether task or journey : nor put the work to task that hath
been accustomed to journey.

None shall discover envy at the prosperity of a brother, nor
supplant him, or put him out of his work, if he be capable to fin-
ish the same ; for no man can finish another's work so much to
the Lord's profit, unless he be thoroughly acquainted with the
designs and draughts of him that began it.

When a fellow-craftnman is chosen warden of the work undei
the master, he shall be true both to master and fellows, shall

(ninating priest will be tamed ; and a moral brotiier, though of a different perauasion,
engage liia esteem : for mutual toleration in religious opinions is one of the most dis-
tinguishing and valuable characteristics of the craft. As all religions teach morality,
if a brother be found to act the part of a truly honest man, his private speculative
opinions are left to (lod and him.self. Thus, through the i.ifluencc of masonry, which
is reconcilable to the best policy, all those disputes which embitter life, and sour ti>«
tempers of men, arc avoidtnL"

PREFACE. 277

carefully oversee the work in the master's absence, to the Lord's
profit ; and his brethren shall obey him.

All masons employed, shall meekly receive their wages with-
out murmuring or mutiny, and not desert the master till the work
is finished.

A younger brother shall be instructed in working, to prevent
spoiling the materials for want of judgment, and for increa-sing
and continuing of brotherly love.

All the tools used in working shall be approved by the Grand
Lodge.

No labourer shall be employed in the proper work of mason-
ry ; nor shall Free Masons work with those that are not Free,
without an urgent necessity ; nor shall they teach labourers
and unaccepted masons, as they should teach a brother or
fellow.

Of behaviour in the Lodge while constituted. If any complaint
be brought, the brother found guilty shall stand to the award and
determination of the lodge, who are the proper and competent
judges of all such controversies, (unless you carry it by appeal
to the Grand Lodge) and to whom they ought to be referred,
unless a Lord's work be hindered the mean while, in which case
a particular reference may be made ; but you must never go to
law about what concerneth masonry, without an absolute neces-
sity apparent to the lodge.

Behaviour in presence of strangers tiot masons. You shall be
cautious in your words and carriage, that the most penetrating
stranger shall not be able to discover or find out what is not pro-
per to be intimated ; and sometimes you shall divert a discourse,
and manage it prudently for the honour of the worshipful frater-
nity.

Behaviour at home, and in your neighbourhood.. You are to act
as becomes a moral and wise man ; particularly, not to let your
family, friends, and neighbours know the concerns of the Lodge,
&c. but wisely to consult your own honour, and that of the an-
cient brotherhood. You must also consult your health, by not
continuing together too late, or too long from home, after lodge
hours are past ; and by avoiding of gluttony and drunkenness
that your families be not neglected or injured, nor you disabled
from working.

Behaviour towards a strange brother. You are cautiously to
examine him, in such a method as prudence shall direct you, that
you may not be imposed upon by an ignorant false pretender,
whom you are to reject with contempt and derision, and beware
of giving him any hints of knowledge.

But if you discover him to be a true and genuine brother, you
are to respect him accordingly ; and if he is in want, you must
relieve him if you can, or else direct him how he may be reliev-
ed ; you must employ him some days, or else recommend him
24

278

PREFACE.

to be employed. But you are not charged to do beyond your
ability, only to prefer a poor brother that is a good man and true,
before any other poor people in the same circumstances."

All the old charges have a reference to Free Masons in tlie
capacity of labourers, and as ^' good men and true,'''' and, no
deubt, had a beneficial effect. But the substance has been lost
sight of, and the skeleton, or sliadow, only retained. The mum-
mery of the Druidical priests, with infinite additions of the same
cast, is cherished as the desideratum of knowledge, calculated
to complete the sum of human happiness and perfection. The
corruptions of tlie Society seem to have kept pace with those
of the Chiistian religion. It is at this day as different to what it
was, as the Christianity now professed is to the religion taught by

Jesus Ciirist. In his time there w^ere no Doctors of Divinity

Right Reverend Fathers in God, nor tkeir Ilolinesses the Popes.
Neither were there in the Society of Free Masons, at its com-
mencement, any Grand Secretaries — Grand Treasurers — Knights
of Malta — Captaia Generals — Generalissimos — Most Excellent
Scribes — Most Excellent High Priests — Most Excellent Kings,
Sec. &.C.* To which might now, perhaps, very appropriately be
added. Grand bottle holder and cork drawer.

The admission into the society of kings, princes, noblemen,
bishops, and doctors in divinity, as patrons of the institution, has
probably been the cause of so great change. The.se men, it
may be presumed, brought much of their consequence Avith
them into the Lodge, and were, no doubt, addressed in a manner
suitable to their supposed dignity in other stations. At any rate,
by whatever means these high sounding titles may have been
introduced, they appear ridiculous when applied to members of
an institution founded for such purpose as that of the Masonic
Society, and ought to be abandoned.

It is difficult, at this time, for members of the Society, or any
body else, to say what benefit is to be derived from the magical
arts pretended to be practised in the Lodges. The mystic rites
and ceremonies of the Egyptian priests, handed down to the
Druids by Pythagoras ; the miraculous stories related of the
ancient Jews ; and the legendary tales of Roman Catholic su-
perstition, fruitful sources of imposition, have been ransacked to
find subjects for new degrees to be tacked to the Society of
Free Masons. I have in my possession a list of forty-three de-
grees in what is called Free-Masonry ; one of which is the or-
der of the Holy Ghost.

If, as here represented, all this mystical nonsense has been
obtruded into the Society, it may be asked, why do men of sen^e
attach themselves to it ? I answer, many retire from it after tak-
ing two or three degrees ; .some have political or other sinister

•

* This is tnip, if reference ?)o nia<te to what it was, v/Wn under the m.in.igemeni
of tiie real mcuons, ilie .>j)eiaii»es previously to the year 1717.

PREFACE. 279

views which retain them ; and, furthermore, most men are fond
of distinction in some way. Any man, of common understand-
ino^, by being punctual at the meetings, and paying strict atten-
tion to the ceremonies, may become a Warden, that is, overseer,
or some other Grand officer, even that o^ Most Worshipful Grand
Master ; and in the mean time, keep mounting up the hidder,
from mystery to mystery, till he arrives at the forty-third degree
of perfection : which, however, in my opinion, cannot be of the
least possible advantage to him here or hereafter, any further
than the consequence it may give him. As to those who serve
in the ranks, they probably consider themselves sufficiently
honoured by being hailed as Brothers by those whom they
think their superiors, and permitted to parade the streets with
ribbands and white aprons, to the amazement of the profane
vulgar.

Notwithstanding the remarks I have made, I am by no means
inimical to the Masonic Society : for I believe it to be a Hberal,
social institution, in which persons of the most opposite opinions
on religious and political subjects associate in the utmo.st har-
mony. By these friendly meetings, it is to be presumed, that
party spirit, both in politics and religion, loses much of its asper-
ity among the members ; and that those, who otherwise might
have entertained hostile feelings towards each other, become
friends. In this point of view, the Society deserves to be held
in the highest estimation. For however laudable zeal may be
in a just cause, when carried to excess, so as to excite personal
ill-will towards others of contrary opinions, it degenerates into
its kindred vice, leading to hatred and persecution. No good
reason can be given why men of the same or similar societies
should entertain greater partiality for one another, than for oth-
ers of their fellow-men, any further than their merits when known
may deserve ; and to this it is generally limited among men of
sense ; still, in consequence of the obligations by which Masons
are bound to each other, and a sort of bigotry in many, this par-
tiality has had its good effects in mitigating the evils of war ;
and, for men who travel, a diploma from a Lodge has passed as
a letter of recommendation in foreign countries.

As a charitable institution, the Masonic Society ought to be
held in high consideration. The relief it grants to its members
and their families in distress, is very considerable. But, unfor-
tunately, as I am told, its means are very much exhausted by
expenses incurred for refreshments at the regular meetings. If
each member were required to pay for what he consumes at
those meetings, the Society, in consequence af its numbers, by
its income arising from annual contributions, fees of initiation,
Stc. would.be enabled to do more in charity, perhaps, than any
private society in existence.

280 PRETACE.

As to what Mr. Paine has saiQ upon this abstruse subject, I
take the liberty of observing, that, in my opinion, notwithstanding
the talents he has bestowed upon it, and the interest he has given
to it, his remarks, made doubtless in the utmost sincerity, are
calculated to perplex and embarrass readers not conversant in
these matters, as much as those of any other author, whose de-
sign was to involve it in unintelligible mystery.

" In thoughts more elevate, he reasoned high,
But found no end, in wand'ring mazes lo&t^'

ORIGIJV OF FREE-MASONRY.

It is always understood that Free-Masons have a secret whica
they carefully conceal ; but from every thing that can be collect-
ed from their own accounts of Masonary, their real secret is no
other than their origin, which but few of them understand ; and
those who do, envelope it in mystery.

The Society of Masons are distinguished into three classes or
degrees. 1st. The Entered Apprentice. 2d. The Fellow*
Craft. 3d. The Master Mason.

The entered apprentice knows but little more of Masonry,
than the use of signs and tokens, and certain steps and words,
by which Masons can recognize each other, without being dis-
covered by a person who is not a Mason. The fellow-craft is
not much better instructed in Masonry, than the entered appren-
tice. It is only in the Master Mason's lodge, that whatever
knowledge remains of the origin of Masonary is preserved and
concealed. *

In 1730, Samuel Pritchard, member of a constituted lodge in
England, published a treatise, entitled Masonry Dissected ; and
made oath before the Lord Mayor of London, that it was a true
copy.

" Samuel Pritchard maketh oath that the copy hereunto an-
nexed is a true and genuine copy in every particular."

In his work he has given the catechism, or examination, in
question and answer, of the apprentices, the fellow-craft, and
the Master Mason. There was no difficulty in doing this, as it
is mere form.

In his introduction he says, " the original institution of Mason-
ry consisted in the foundation of the liberal arts and sciences,
but more especially in Geometry, for at the building of the Tower
of Babel, the art and mystery of Masonry was first introduced,
and from thence handed down by Euclid, a worthy and excel-
lent mathematician of the Egyptians ; and he communicated it
to Hiram, the Master Mason concerned in building Solomon's
Temple in Jerusalem."

Besides the absurdity of deriving Masonry from the building
of Babel, where according to the story, the confusion of lan-
guages prevented the builders understanding each other, and
consequently of communicating any knowledge they had there,
is a glaring contradiction in point of chronology in the account he
gives.

282 ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRT.

Solomon's Temple was built and dedicated 1004 years before
the Christian era ; and Euclid, as may be seen in the tables of
chronology, lived 277 years before the same era. It was there-
fore impossible that Euclid could communicate anythingto Hiram,
since Euclid did not live till 700 years after the time of Hiram.

In 1783, Captain Goerge Smith, inspector of the Royal Artil-
lery Academy at Woolwich, in England, and Provincial Grand
IMaster of Masonry for the county of Kent, published a treatise
entitled, The Use and Abuse of Free-Masonry.

In his chapter of the antiquity of Masonry, he makes it to be
coeval with creation. " When," says he, " the sovereign archi-
tect raised on Masonic principles the beauteous globe, and com-
manded that master science Geometry, to lay the planetary world,
and to regulate by its laws the whole stupendous system in just
unerring proportion, rolling round the central sun."

" But," continues he, " I am not at liberty publicly to undraw
the curtain, and thereby to descant on this head ; it is sacred,
and will ever remain so ; those who are honoured with the trust
wHl not reveal it, and those who are ignorant of it cannot betray
it." By this last part of the phrase. Smith means the two infe-
rior classes, the fellow-craft and the entered apprentice, for he
says, in the next page of his work, "It is not every one that is
barely initiated into Free-]Masonry that is entrusted with all the
mysteries thereto belonging ; they are not attainable as things of
course, nor by every capacity."

The learned, but unfortunate Doctor Dodd, Grand Chaplain
of Masonry, in his oration at the dedication of Free-Mason's
Hall, London, traces Masonry through a variety of stages. Ma-
sons, says he, are well informed from their own private and inte-
rior records, that the building of Solomon's TemjjJe is an impor-
tant era, from whence they derive many mysteries of their art.
"Now (says he), be it remembered that this great event took
place above 1000 years before the Christian era, and consequent-
ly more than a century before Homer, the first of the Grecian
Poets wrote ; and above five centuries before Pythagoras brought
from the east his sublime system of truly masonic instruction to
illuminate our western world.

" But remote as this period is, we date not from thence the
commencement of onr art. For though it might owe to the wise
and glorious King of li^racl, some of its many mystic forms and
hieroglyphic ceremonies, yet certainly the art itself is coeval with
man, the great subject of it.

*' We trace," continues he, " its footsteps in the most distant,
the most remote ages and nations of the world. We find it
amongst the first and most celebrated civilizers of the East.
We deduce it regularly from the first astronomers on the plains
of Chaldea, to the wise and mystic kings and priests of Egypt,
the sages of Greece, and the philosophers of Rome."

ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. 583

u

From these reports and declarations of Masons of the high-
est order in the institution, we see that Masonry, without pub-
licly declaring so, lays claim to some divine communication trom
tlie Creator, in a manner different from, and unconnected with,
the book which the Christians call the Bible ; and the natural
result from this is, that Masonry is derived from some very an-
cient religion, wholly Independent of, and unconnected with that
book.

To come then at once to the point. Masonry (as I shall show
from the customs, ceremonies, hieroglyphics, and chronology of
Masonry) is derived, and is the remains of the religion of the an-
cient Druids ; who, like the magi of Persia and the priests of
Heliopolis in Egypt, were priests of the Sun. They paid worship
to this great luminary, as the great visible agent of a great invis-
ible first cause, whom they styled. Time without limits.

The Christian religion and Masonry have one and the same
common origin, both are derived from the worship of the sun ;
the difference between their origin is, that the Christian religion
is a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they put a man
whom they call Christ, in the place of the sun, and pay him the
same adoration which was originally paid to the sun, as I have
shown in the chapter on the origin of the Christian religion.*

In Masonry many of the ceremonies of the Druids are pre-
served in their original state, at least without any parody. With
them the sun is still the sun ; and his image in the form of the
sun, is the great emblematical ornament of Masonic Lodges and
Masonic dresses. It is the central figure on their aprons, and
they wear it also pendant on the breast in their lodges and in
their processions. It has the figure of a man, as at the head of
the sun, as Christ is always represented.

At what period of antiquity, or in what nation, this religion
was first established, is lost in the labyrinth of unrecorded times.
It is generally ascribed to the ancient Egyptians, the Babyloni-
ans and Chaldeans, and reduced afterwards to a system regulated
by the apparent progress of the s^m through the twelve signs of
Zodiac by Zoroaster the lawgiver of Persia, from whence
Pythagoras brought it into Greece. It is to these matters Dr.
Dodd refers in the passage already quoted from his oration.

The worship of the sun, as the great visible agent of a great
invisible first cause, time without limits, spread itself over a con-
siderable part of Asia and Africa, from thence to Greece and
Rome, through all ancient Gaul, and into Britain and Ireland.

Smith, in his chapter on the antiquity of Masonry in Britain,
says, tluit " notwithstanding tlie obscurity which envelopes ma-
sonic history in that country, various circumstances contribute to

* Referring to an unpublished portion of this work of wliicli this chapter forms u
part.

284 ORIGIN OP FREE-MASONRV.

prove that Free-Masonry was introduced into Britain about 1030
years before Christ."

It cannot be Masonry in its present state that Smith here
alludes to. The Druids flourished in Britain at the period he
speaks of, and it is from them that Masonry is descended. Smith
has put the child in the place of the parent.

It sometimes happens, as well in writing as in conversation,
that a person lets slip an expression that serves to unravel what
he intends to conceal, and this is the case with Smith, for in tho
same chapter he says, " The Druids, when they committed any
thing to writing, used the Greek alphabet, and I am bold to as-
sert that the most perfect remains of the Druid's rites and cere-
monies are preserved in the customs and ceremonies of the Ma-
sons that are to be found existing among mankind. " My breth-
ren" says he, " maybe able to trace them with greater exactness
than I am at liberty to explain to the public."

This is a confession from a Master Mason, without intending
it to be so understood by the public, that Masonry is the remains
of the religion of the Druids ; the reasons for the Masons keep-
ing this a secret I shall explain in the course of this work.

As the study and contemplation of the Creator in the works
of the creation, of which, the sun as the great visible agent of
that Being, was the visible object of the adoration of Druids, all
their religious rights and ceremonies had reference to the appa-
rent progress of the sun through the twelve signs of the Zodiac,
and his influence upon the earth. The Masons adopt tne same
practices. The roof of their temples or lodges is ornamented
with a sun, and the floor is a representation of the variegated
face of the earth, either by carpeting or by Mosaic work.

Free-Masons' Hall, in Great Queen-street, Lincoln's Inn
Fields, London, is a magnificent building, and cost upwards of
12,000 pounds sterling. Smith, in speaking of this building,
says, (page 152.) "The roof of this magnificent hall is, in all
probability, the highest piece of finished architecture in Europe.
In the centre of this roof, a most resplendent sun is represented
in burnished gold, surrounded with the twelve signs of the Zodi-
ac, witli their respective characters :

=£t Libra
tri Scorpio
t Sagittarius
Vf Capricornus
1S!Z Aquarius
3€ Pisces

After givmg this description, he says, " The emblematical
meaning of the sun is well known to the enlightened and inquis-
itive Free-Mason : and as the real sun is situated in the centre

T

Aries

8

Taurus

n

Gemini

E5

Cancer

a

Leo

^

Virgo

ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY 285

of the universe, so the emblematical sun is the centre of real
Masonry. We all know, continues he, that the sun is the foun-
tain of light, the source of the seasons, the cause of the vicissi-
tudes of day and night, the parent of vegetation, the friend of
man ; hence the scientific Free-Mason only knows the reason
why the sun is placed in the centre of this beautiful hall."

The Masons, in order to protect themselves from the persecu-
tion of the Christian church, have always spoken in a mystical
manner of the figure of the sun in their lodges, or, like the as-
tronomer Lalande, who is a mason, been silent upon the subject.
It is their secret, especially in Catholic countries, because the
figure of the sun is the expressive criterion that denotes they are
descended from the Druids, and that wise, elegant philosoph-
ical, religion, was the faith opposite to the faith of the gloomy
Christian church.

The lodges of the Masons, if built for the purpose, are con-
structed in a manner to correspond with the apparent motion of
the sun. They are situated East and West. The master's
place is always in the East. In the examination of an entered
apprentice, the master, among many other questions, asks him,

Q. How is the lodge situated ? ^

A. East and West.

Q. Why so ?

A. Because all ohurcheg and chapels are, or ought to be so.

This answer, which is mere catechismal form, is not an answer
to the question. It does no more than remove the question a
point further, which is, why ought all churches and c.h apsis to be
so ? But as the entered apprentice is not initiated into the Dru-
idical mysteries of Masonry, he is not asked any questions to
which a direct answer would lead thereto.

Q. Where stands your master ?

A. In the East.

Q. Why so ?

A. As the sun rises in the East, and opens the day, so the mas-
ter stands in the East, (with his right hand upon his left breast,
being a sign, and the square about his neck,) to open the lodge,
and set his men at work.

Q. Where stands your wardens ?

A. In the West.

Q. What is their business ?

A. As the sun sets in the West to close the day, so the war-
dens stand in the West, (with their right hands upon their left
breasts, being a sign, and the level and plumb rule about their
necks,) to close the lodge, and dismiss the men from labour,
paying them their wages.

Here the name of the sun is mentioned, but it is proper to
observe, that in this place it has reference only to labour or to
the time of labour, and not to any religious Druidical rite or cere-

286 ORIGIN" OF FUEE-MASONnV.

mony, as it would have with respect to the situation of Lodges
East and Wcvst. I have ah-eady observed in the chapter on the
origin of the Christian reUgion, tliat the situation of churclies
East and West is taken from the worship of the sun, which rises
in the East, and has not the least reference to the person called
Jesus Christ. The Christians never bury their dead on the
North side of a church ;* and a Mason's Lodge always has, or
is supposed to have, three windows, which are called fixed lights,
to distinjjaish them from the moveable lights of the sun and the
moon. The master asks the entered apprentice,

Q. How are they (the fixed lights) situated ?

A. East, West, and South.

Q. What are their uses ?

A. To lieht the men to and from their work.

Q. Why are there no lights in the North ?

A. Because the sun darts no rays from thence.

This, among numerous other instances, shows that the Christ
tian religion, and Masonry, have one and the same common ori-
gin, the ancient worship of the sun.

The high festival of the Masons is on the day they call St.
John's day ; but every enlightened Mason must know that hold-
ing their festival on this day has no reference to the person call-
ed St. John ; and that it is only to disguise the true cause of
holding it on this day, that they call the day by that name. As
there were Masons, or at least Druids, many centuries before
the time of St. John, if such person ever existed, tiie holding
their festival on tliis day must refer to some cause totally uncon-
nected with John, „

The case is, that the day called St. John's day is the 24th of
June, and is what is called ]Midsummer-day. The sun is then

*Tliis may have been tl>e cri?e formerly, but I believe, at present, very little atten-
tion is paiii to the [losition of liiirying gioumls in respect to clinrclics. Iti regard to
" the situation of churches East and West," I linii the rule was oliserved as late as
tlie time of building St. Paul's Cathedral, which was finished in 1697. William
Presten, in giving a description of lliis edifice, in his Illustrations of Masonry, says,
" A strict regard to the situation of this Cathedral, due East and \\'est, has given it
an oblique appearance with respect to I.udgate-slreet in front ; so that the great front
gate hi the surrounding iron rails, Ix^ing made to regard the sheet in front, rather
than the Clinrch to which it belongs, the ttatuc of c|uee!i Ann, that is exactly in the
middle of the west front, is thrown on one side the straight approach from the gate to
the t'hurch, and gives an idea of the whole edifice bt-ing awry." In 1707, Sir Chris-
topher Wren, the Architect of St. Paul's Cathedral, in a letter addressed to n joint
commissioner with himself for building fifty churches in addition to others already
built, to supply the place of those destroyed by the conflagration of KifiG, observes,
♦'I conid wish that all the biiiials in Cliiu<-he8 should be disallowed, which is not only
unwholesome, but the pavementa can never be kept even, nor pews upright ; and if the
(Church-yard is close about tin; church, this also is inconvenient. It will lie iiuinired,
where then shall l)c the burials 1 I answer in cemeteries seated in the out-skirts of
the town. As to the situation of the Churches, I should propose they be Ivought as
forward as (jossible into the larger and more open streets. Nor are we, I tliink, too
flicoly to observe East and West in the position, unless it falls out properly." See An-
dereon's Book of Conslitutii;ns of the i ree-Masons. — EniTou.

OniGIN OF FREE-MASON'RV. 287

arrived at the summer solstice ; and with respect to his meridi-
onal altitude, or height at high noon, appears for some days to
be of the same height. The astronomical longest day, like the
shortest day, is not every year, on account of leap year, on tlie
same numerical day, and therefore the 24th of June is always
taken for Midsummer-day ; and it is in honour of the sun, which
has then arrived at his greatest height, in our hemisphere, and
not any thing with respect to St. John, that this annual festival
of the Masons, taken from the Druids, is celebrated on Midsum-
mer-day.

Customs will often outlive the remembrance of their origin,
and this is the case with respect to a custom still practised in
Ireland, where the Druids flourished at the time they flourished
in Britain. On the eve of St. John's day, that is, on the eve of
IVIidsummer-day, the Irish light fires on the tops of the hills.
This can have no reference to St. John ; but it has emblemat-
ical reference to the sun, which on that day is at his highest
summer elevation, and mifjht in common lanfiuajre be said to

7 o DO

have arrived at the top of the hill.

As to what Masons and books of Masonry, tell us of Solo-
mon's Temple at Jerusalem, it is no wise improbable that some
masonic ceremonies may have been derived from the building
of that temple, for the worship of the sun was in practice many
centuries before the temple existed, or before the Israelites came
out of Egypt. And we learn from the history of the Jewish
Kings, 2 Kings, chap. xxii. xxiii. that the worship of the sun
was performed by the Jews in that temple. It is, however,
much to be doubted, if it was done with the same scientific
purity and religious morality, with which it was performed by the
Druids, who by all accounts that historically remain of them,
wore a wise, learned, and moral class of men. The Jews, on
the contrary, were ignorant of astronomy, and of science in gen-
eral, and if a religion founded upon astronomy, fell into tlieir
hands, it is almost certain it would be corrupted. We do not
read in the history of the Jews, whether in the Bible or else-
where, that they were the inventors or the improvers of any one
art or science. Even in the building of this temple, the Jews
did not know how to square and frame the timber for beginning
and carrying on the work, and Solomon was obliged to send to
Hiram, king of Tyre, (Zidon) to procure workmen ; " for thou
knowest, (says Solomon to Hiram, 1 Kings, chap. v. ver. 6,)
tiiat there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like
unto the Zidonians." This temple was more properly Hiram's
temple than Solomon's, and if the Masons derive any thing from
the building of it, they owe it to the Zidonians and not to the
Jews. — But to return to the worship of the sun in this temple.

It is said, 2 Kings, chap, .\xiii. ver. 8 " And King Josiah put

288 ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY.

down all the idolatrous priests that burned mcense unto the sun,
the moon, the planets, and all the host of heaven." — And it is
said at the 1 1th ver. " and he took away the horses that the kings
of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering ip of the house
of the Lord, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire, ver. 13,
and the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on
the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon, the
King of Israel had budded for Astoreth, the abomination of the
Zidonians (the very people that built the temple) did the king
defile.

Besides these things, the description that Josephus gives of the
decorations of this temple, resembles on a large scale those of a
Mason's Lodge. He says that the distribution of the several
parts of the temple of the Jews represented all nature, particu-
larly the parts most apparent of it, as the sun, the moon, the
planets, the zodiac, the earth, the elements ; and that the sys-
tem of the world was retraced there by numerous ingenious em-
blems. These, in all probability, are, what Josiah, in his ig-
norance, calls the abominations of the Zidonians.* Every
thing, however, drawn from this temple,t and applied to Mason-
ry, still refers to the worship of the sun, however corrupted or
misunderstood by the Jews, and, consequently, to the religion
of the Druids.

Another circumstance which shows that Masonary rs derived
from some ancient system, prior to, and unconnected with, the
Christian religion, is the chronology, or method of counting time,
used by the Masons in the records of their lodges. They make
no use of what is called the Christian era ; and they reckon their
months numerically, as the ancient Egyptians did, and as the
Quakers do now. I have by me, a record of a French Lodge,
at the time the late Duke of Orleans, then Duke de Chartres, was
Grand Master of Masonary in France. It begins as follows :
" Le trentieme jour due sixieme mois de fan de la V. L. cinq, mil sept
cent soixante Irois ,•" that is, the thirteenth day of the sixth month
of the year of the venerable Lodge, five thousand seven hundred
and seventy three. By what I observe in English books of
Masonary, the English Masons use the initials A. L. and not V.

* Smill), in speaking of a Lodge, says, when the Lodge ia revealed to an entering
Mason, It discovers to him a representation of the world ; in wiiici), from tiie won-
ders of nature, we are led to contemplate lier great Original, and worsliip him from
Lis mighty works ; and we are thereby also moved to exercise those moral and social
virtues whicii become mankind as the servants of the great Architect *f tlie world.

•f It may not be improper here to observe, that the kiw f-.illed the law of Moses could
not have beeu in existence at tiic time of building this temple. Here is the likeness
of things in heaven above, and in the earth beneath. And we read in 1 Kings, chap.
6, 7, tliat Solomon made cherubs and chcrubims, that he carved all the walls of the
liou^e round about with cherubims and palm-trees, and open flowers, and that he
made a molten .sea, placed on twelve oxen, and the ledges of it were ornamented with
lions, oxen, and chcrubims; all tliis is contrary to the law, called the law of Moses.

ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. 289

L. By A. L. they mean in the year of the Lodge,* as the
Christians by A, D. mean in the year of our Lord. But A. L.
hke V. L. refers to the same chronological era, that is, to the
supposed time of the creation. In the chapter on the origin of
the Chiristian religion, I have shown that the cosmogany, that is,
the account of the creation, with which the book of Genesis opens,
has taken and been mutilated from the Zend-Avista of Zo-
roaster, and is fixed as a preface to the Bible, after the Jews
returned from captivity in Babylon, and that the rabbins of the
Jews do not hold their account in Genesis to be a fact, but mere
allegory. The six thousand years in the Zend-Avista, is chang-
ed or interpolated into six days in the account of Genesis. The
Masons appear to have chosen the same period, and perhaps to
avoid the suspicion and persecution of the church, have adopted
the era of the world, as the era of Masonry. The V. L. of the
French, and A. L. of the English Mason, answer to the A. M.
Anno-Mundi, or year of the world.

Though the Masons have taken many of their ceremonies and
hieroglyphics from the ancient Egyptians, it is certain they have
not taken their chronology from thence. If they had, the church
would soon have sent them to the stake ; as the chronology of
the Egyptians, like that of the Chinese, goes many thousand
years beyond the Bible chronology.

The religion of the Druids, as before said, was the same as
the religion of the ancient Egyptians. The priests of Egypt
were the professors and teachers of science, and were styled
priests of Heliopolis, that is, of the city of the sun. Tlie Druids
in Europe, who were the same order of men, have their name
from the Teutonic or ancient German language ; the Germans
being anciently called Teutones. The word Druid signifies a
tme man. In Persia they were called magi, which signifies the
same thing.

" Egypt," says Smith, " from whence we derive many of our
mysteries, has always borne a distinguished rank in history, and
was once celebrated above all others for its antiquities, learning,
opulence, and fertility. In their system, their principal hero-
gods, Osiris and Isis, theologically represented the Supreme Be-
ing and universal nature ; an.d physically, the two great celestial
luminaries, the sun and the moon, by whose influence all nature
was actuated. The experienced brethren of the Society (says
Smith in a note to this passage) are well informed what affinity
these symbols bear to Masonry, and why they are used in all
Masonic Lodges."

* V. L. used by French Masons, are ihc initials of Viaie Lmniere, true light ; and
A. F.. used by the Enijlish, are the initiaisi of Anno Lucis, in the year of light. But
OS in boUi cases, as Mr. Puine observes, reference is had to the supposed time of tha
cjcai ion, his mistake is of no consequence. — Editor

2.5

290 ORIGIN OJ" FREE-MASONRY.

In speaking of the apparel of the Masons in their Lodgf.8, part
of which, as we see in their pubHc processions, is a white leather
apron, he says, "the Druids were apparelled in white at tlie time
of their sacrifices and solemn offices. The Egyptian priests of
Osiris wore snow-white cotton. The Grecian and most other
priests wore white garments. As Masons we regard the princi-
ples of those icho were the first worshipers of the true God, imitate
their apparel, and assume the badge of innocence.

" The Egyptians," continues Smith, " in the earliest ages, con-
stituted a great number of Lodges, but with assiduous care kept
their secrets of Masonry from all strangers. These secrets have
been imperfectly handed down to us by tradition only, and ought
to be kept undiscovered to the labourers, craftsmen, and appren-
tices, till by good behaviour and long study, they become better
acquainted in geometry and the liberal arts, and thereby qualitt
ed for Masters and Wardens, which is seldom or ever the ca.se
with English Masons."

Under the head of Free-Masonry, written by the astronomer
Lalande, in the French Encyclopedia, I expected from his great
knowledge in astronomy, to have found much information on the
origin of Masonry ; for what connection can there be betweea
any institution and the sun and twelve signs of the zodiac, if ther«
be not something in that institution or in its origin, that has refer-
ence to astronomy. Every thing used as an hieroglyphic, has re-
ference to the subject and purpose for which it is used ; and we
are not to suppose the Free-Masons, among whom are many very
learned and scientific men, to be such idiots as to make use of
astronomical signs without some astronomical purpose.

But I was much disappointed in my expectation from Lalande
In speaking of the origin of Masonry, he says, '■'■U online tie la
inaconnerie se perd, comme tant d'autres dans VobscwJc des temps ,•"
that is, the origin of Masonry, like many others, loses itself in the
obscurity of time. When I came to this expression, I supposed
Lalande a Mason, and on inquiry found he was. This passing
over saved him from the embarrassment which Masons are under
respecting the disclosure of their origin, and which they are sworn
to conceal. There is a society of Masons in Dublin who take
the name of Druids ; these Masons must be supposed to have a
re.ison for taking that name.

I come now to speak of the cause of secrcsy used by the Ma-
sons. The natural source of secrcsy is fear. AVhen any new re-
ligion over-runs a former religion, the professors of the new be-
come the persecutors of the old. We sec this in all the instances
that history brings before us. When Ililkiah the priest and Sha-
phan the scribe, in the reign of king Josiah, found, or pretended
to find the law, called the law of Moses, a thousand years afler
the time of Mosc3, and it does not appear from the 2d book of
Kings, chapters 2'2, 23, that sucli law was ever practiced or

ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRV. 291

known before the time of Josiah, he established that law as a na-
tional religion, and put all the priests of the sun to death. When
the Christian religion over-ran the Jewish religion, the Jews were
the continual subjects of persecution in all Christian countries
When the Protestant religion in England over-rarj the Roman
Catholic reJigion, it was made death for a Catholic priest to he
found in England. As this has been the case in all the instances
we have any knowledge of, we are obliged to admit it with respect
to the case in question, and that when the Christian religion ovt i-
ran the religion of the Uruids in Italy, ancient Gaul, Biitain, and
Ireland, the Druids became the subjects of persecution. This
would naturally and necessarily oblige such of them as remained
attached to their original religion to meet in secret, and under
the strongest injunctions of secresy. Their safety depended up-
on it. A false brotlier might expose the lives of many ofthein
to destruction : and from the remains of the reliirion of tiie Druids,
thus preserved, arose the institution, which, to avoid the name of
Druid, took that of Mason, and practised, under this new name,
-he rights and ceremonies of Druids.

LETTER

TO

SAMUEL ADAMS.

My dear and venerable Friend,

I RECEIVED with great pleasure your friendly and afiectionate
letter of Nov. 30th, and I thank you also for the frankness of it.
Between men in pursuit of truth, and whose object is the happi-
ness of man both here and hereafter, there ought to be no re-
serve. Even error has a claim to indulgence, if not to respect,
when it is believed to be truth. I am obliged to you for your af-
fectionate remembrance of what you style my services in awak-
ening the puWic mind to a declaration of independence, and sup-
porting it after it was declared. I also, like you, have ofleu
looked back on those times, and have thought, that if indepen-
dence had not been declared at the time it was, the public mind
could not have been brought up to it afterwards. It wijl imme-
diately occur to you, who were so intimately acquainted with the
situation of things at that time, that I allude to the black times
of seventy-six ; for though I know, and you my friend also know,
they were no other than the natural consequences of the military
blunders of that campaign, the country might have viewed them
as proceeding from a natural inability to support its cause against
the enemy, and have sunk under the despondency of that mis-
conceived idea. This was the impression against which it was
necessary the country should be strongly animated.

I now come to the second part of your letter, on which I shall
be as frank with you as you are with me. " But (say you) when
I heard you had turned your mind to a defence of i?ifidelity, I felt
myself much astonished," &c. What, my good friend, do you
call believing in God infidelity 1 for that is the great point men-
tioned in the Age of Reason against all divided beliefs and alle-
gorical divinities. The Bishop of LlandafT (Dr. Watson) not
only acknowledges this, but pays me some compliments upon it,
in his answer to the second part of that work. " There is (says
he) a philosophical sublimity in some of your ideas, when speak-
ing of the Creator of the Universe."

What then, (my much, esteemed friend, for I do not respect
you the less because we differ, and that perhaps not much, in re-
ligious sentiments) what, I ask, is the thing called infidelity'? If
we go back to your ancestors and mine, three or four hundred

25*

294

LETTEn TO

years ago, for we must have .athers, and grandfathers or we
should not have been here, we shall find them praying to saints
and virgins, and believing in purgatory and transubstantiation :
and therefore, all of us are infidels according to our forefather's
belief If we go back to times more ancient we shall again be
infidels according to the belief of some other forefathers.

The case, my friend, is, that the world has been overrun with
fable and creed of human invention, with sectaries of whole na-
tions, against other nations, and sectaries of those sectaries in
each of them against each other. Every sectary, except the
Quakers, have been persecutors. Those who fled from persecu-
tion, persecuted in their turn ; and it is this confusion of creeds
that has filled the world with persecution, and deluged it with
blood. Even the depredation on your commerce by the Barbarv
powers, sprang from the crusades of the church against those
powers. It was a war of creed against creed, each boasting of
God for its author, and reviling each other with the name oflnfi-
del. If I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not
believe as I believe, and this is all that it proves.

There is, hovyeyer, one point of union wherein all religions
meet, and that is in the first article of every man's creed, and of
- jivery nation's creed, that has any creed at all, I believe in God.
Those who rest here, and there are millions who do, cannot be
wrong as far as their creed goes. Those who choose to go fur-
ther may be turong, for it is impossible that all can be right, since
there is so much contradiction among tliem-. The first, there-
fore, are, in my opinion, on the safest side.

I presume you are so far acquainted with ecclesiastical history
as to know, and the bishop who has answered me has been oblig-
ed to acknowledge the fact, that the Books that compose the New
Testament, were voted by yeas and nays to be the Word of God,
as you now vote a law, by the Popish Councils of Nice and La-
ovlocia, about fourteen hundred and fifty years ago. With re-
spect to the fact there is no dispute, neither do I mention it for
the sake of controversy. This vote may appear authority enough
to some, and not authority enough to others. It is proper, how-
ever, that every body should know the fact.

With respect to the Age of Reason which you so much con-
demn, and that, I believe, without having read it, for you say
only that you heard of it, I will inform you of a circumstance,
because you cannot know it by other means.

I have said in the first page of the first part of that work, that
it had long been my intention to publish my thoughts upon reli-
gion, but that I had reserved it to a later time of life. I have
now to inform you why I wrote it and published it at the time I
did.

In the first place, I saw my life in continual danger. My
friends were falling as fast as the guillotine could cut their heads

SAMUEL ADAMS. 295

off, and as I e^ipected every day the same fate, I resolved to be-
gin my work. I appeared to myself to be on my death bed, for
death was on every side of me, and I had no time to lose. This
accounts for my writing at the time I did, and so nicely did the
time and intention meet, that I had not finished the first part of
the work more than six hours, before I was arrested and, taken
to prison. Joel Barlow was with me, and knows the fact.

In the second place, the people of France were running head-
Jong into atheism, and I had the work translated and published in
their own language, to stop them in that' career, and fix them to
the first article (as I have before said) of every man's creed, who
has any creed at all, I believe in God. I endangered my own
life, in Uie first place, by opposing in the Convention the exe-
cuting of the King, and labouring to show they were trying the
monarch and not t!ie man, and that the crimes imputed to him
were the crimes of the moinirchical system ; and endangered it
a second time by opposing atheism, and yet some of your priests,
for I do believe that all are perverse, cry out, in the war-ivhoop
of monarchical priestcraft, what an infidel ! what a wicked man
is Thomas Paine ! They might as well add, for he believes in
God, and is against shedding blood.

But all this war-whoop of the pulpit has some concealed object.
Religion is not the cause, but is the stalking horse. They put it
forward to conceal themselves behind it. It is not a secret that
there has been a party composed of the leaders of the Federal-
ists, for I do not include all Federalists with their leaders, who
have been working by various means for several years past, to
overturn the Federal Constitution established on the representa-
tive system, and place government in the new world on the cor-
rupt system of the old. To accomplish this a large standing ar-
my was necessary, and as a pretence for such an army, the dan-
ger of a foreign invasion must be bellowed forth, from the pulpit,
fi-om the press, and by their public orators.

I am not of a disposition inclined to suspicion. It is in its na-
ture a mean and cowardly passion, and upon the whole, even admit-
ting error into the case, it is better ; I am sure it is more gener-
ous to be wrong on the side of confidence, than on the side of
suspicion. But I know as a fact, that the English Government
distributes annually fifteen hundred pounds sterling among the
Presbyterian ministers in England, and one hundred among those
of Ireland ;* and when I hear of the strange discourses of some
of your ministers and professors of colleges, I cannot, as the
Quakers say, find freedom in my mind to acquit them. Their
anti-revolutionary doctrines invite suspicion, even against one's
will, and in spite of one's charity to believe well of them.

* Thero must undoubtedly be a very gross mistake in respect to the amount said to
be expended ; the sums intended to be expressed wore probably fifteen hundred thou-
«and, and one hundred tliousand pounds. — Editor.

296 LETTER TO

As you have given me one Scripture prrrase, I will give you
another for those ministers. It is said in Exodus, chapter xxiii,
verse 28, " Thou shalt not revile the Gods, nor curse the ruler
of thy people." But those ministers, such I mean as Dr. Em-
mons, curse Tuler and people both, for the majority are, politi-
cally, the people, and it is those who have chosen the ruler whom
tiiey curse. As to the first part of the verse, that of not reviling
the Gods, it makes no part of my Scripture : I have but one God.

Since I began this letter, for I write it by piece-meals as I have
leisure, I have seen the four letters that passed between you and
John Adams. In your first letter you say, " Let divines and
philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their endeavours to
renovate the age by inculcating in the minds of youth the fear and
love of the Deitij, and universal philanthropy^ Why, my dear
friend, this is exactly mxj religion, and is the whole of it. That
you may have an idea that the Age of Reason (for I believe you
have not read it) inculcates this reverential fear and love of the
Deity, I will give you a paragraph from it :

" Do wc want to contemplate his power? We see it in the
immensity of the Creation. Do we want to contemplate his
wisdom.'' We see it in the unchangeable order by which the in-
comprehensible whole is governed. Do we want to contemplate
his munificence.'' We see it in the abundance with which he fills
the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy ? We see it
in his not withholding that abundance even from the unthankful."

As I am fully with you in your first part, that respecting the
Deity, so am I in your second, that o^ universal philanthropy ; by
which I do not mean merely the sentimental benevolence of wish-
ing well, but the practical benevolence of doing good. We can-
not serve the Deity in the manner we serve those who cannot do
without that service. He needs no services from us. We can
add nothing to eternity. But it is in our power to render a ser-
vice acceptable to him, and tliat is not by praying, but by endeav-
ouring to make his creatures happy. A man does not serve God
when he prays, for it is himself he is trying to serve ; and as to
hiring or paying men to pray, as if the Deity needed instruction,
it is in my opinion an abomination. One good school-master is
of more use and of more value than a load of such parsons as
Dr. En'imons, and sonje others.

You, my dear and much respected friend, are now far in the
vale of years ; I have yet, I believe, some years in store, for I
have a good state of health and a happy mind ; I take care of
both, by nourishing the first with temperance, and the latter with
abundance.

This, I believe you will allow to be the true philosophy of life.
You will see by my third letter to the citizens of the. United
States, that I have been exposed to, and preserved through many
dangers ; but instead of buffeting the Deity with prayers, as ifl

SA3IUEL ADAMS. 297

distrusted him, or must dictate to him, I reposed myself on his
protection : and you, my friend, will find, even in your last mo-
ments, more consolation in the silence of resignation than in the
murmuring wish of prayer.

In every thing which you say in your second letter to John
Adams, respectino- our rights as men and citizens in this world,
I am perfectly with you. On other points we have to answer to
our Creator and not to each other. The key of heaven is not in
the keeping of any sect, nor ought the road to it to be obstructed
by any. Our relation to each other in this world is as men, and
the man who is a friend to man and to his rights, let his religious
opinions be what they may, is a good citizen, to whom I can give,
as I ought to do, and as every other ought, the right hand of fel-
lowship, and to none with more hearty good will, my dear friend
than to you

THOMAS PAINE.

Federal Cily,Jan. 1, 1803.

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER

TO

AIVDREW A. DEAIV.

Respected Friend,

I RECEIVED your friendly letter, for which T am obliged to you.
It is three weeks ago to-day (Sunday, Aug. 15,) that 1 was struck
with a fit of an apoplexy, that deprived me of all sense and mo-
tion. I had neither pulse nor breathing, and the people about
ine supposed me dead. I had felt exceedingly well that day, aad
bad jnst taken a slice of bread and butter, lor supper, and was
gcyijg to bed. The fit took me on the stairs, as suddenly as if I
had been shot through the head ; and I got so very much hurt
by the fall, that I have not been able to get in and out of bed
since that day, otherwise than being lifted out in a blanket, by
two persons ; yet all this while my mental faculties have remain-
ed ag perfect as I ever enjoyed them. I consider the scene I
have passed tnrough as an experiment on dying, and I find that
death has no terrors for me. As to the people called Christians,
they have no evidence that their religion is true.f There is no
more proof that the Bible is the word of God, than that the Ko-
ran of Mahomet is the word of God. It is education makes all
the diflerence. Man, before he begins to think for himself, is as
much the child of habit in Creeds as he is in ploughing and sow-
ing. Yet creeds, like opinions, prove nothing.

Where is the evidence that the person called Jesus Christ is
the begotten Son of God .'' The case admits not of evidence ei-
ther to our senses, or our mental faculties ; neither has God given
to man any talent by which such a thing is comprehensible. It
cannot therefore be an object for faith to act upon, for faith is
nothing more than an assent the mind gives to something it sees
cause to believe is fact. But priests, preacliers, and lanatics,
put imagination in the place of faith, and it is the nature of the
imagination to believe without evidence.

• Mr. Dean rented Mr. Paine's farm at New Roclielle.

t Mr. Paine's entering upon the sutiject of religion on liiis occasion, it may be pre-
tuined, was occasioned by tlie lollowing passage in Mr. Dean's letter to hint, viz.

" I have read with good attention your manuscript on itrcanis, and exaniinatiun on
(he propliccifs in the bible. I aui now 6(-archiM<; the old projOiecies, and comparing
die same to those said to be qmited in the New 'restament. I confess the comparison
it a matter worthy of our serious attention ; I know not the result till I finish ; then,
if you be living, I shall coinmuiiicnlc the same to you : I hope to be with you as soon
US possible."

LETTER TO MR. DEAN, 299

If Joseph the carpenter dreamed, (as the book of Matthew,
chap. 1st, says he did,) that his betrothed wife, Mary, was with
child, by the Holy Ghost, and that an angel told him so ; I am
not obliged to put faith in his dream, nor do I put any, for I put
no faith in my own dreams, and I should be weak and foolish in-
deed to put faith in the dreams of others.

The Christian religion is derogatory to the Creator in all its
articles. It puts the Creator in an inferior point of view, and
places the Christian Devil above him. It is he, according to
the absurd story in Genesis, that outwits the Creator, in the gar-
den of Eden, and steals from him his favourite creature, man,
and at last, obliges him to beget a son, and put that son to death,
to get man back again, and this the priests of the Christian re-
ligion, call redemption.

Christian authors exclaim against the practice of offering up
human sacrifices, which they say, is done in some countries ;
and those authors make those exclamations without ever reflect-
ing that their own doctrine of salvation is founded on a human
sacrifice. They are saved, they say, by the blood of Christ.
The Christian religion begins with a dream, and ends with a
murder.

As I am now well enough to set up some hours in the day,
though not well enough to get up without help, I employ myself
as I have always done, in endeavouring to bring man to the right
use of the reason that God has given him, and to direct his mind
immediately to his Creator, and not to fanciful secondary beings
called mediators, as if God was superannuated or ferocious.

As to the book called the Bible, it is blasphemy to call it the
word of God. It is a book of lies and contradiction, and a his-
tory of bad times and bad men. There is but a few good charac-
ters in the whole book. The fable of Christ and his twelve apostles,
which IS a parody on the sun and the twelve signs of the Zodiac,
copied from the ancient religions of the eastern world, is the
least hurtful part. JEvery thing told of Christ has reference to
the sun. His reported resurrection is at sun-rise, and that on
the first day of the week ; that is, on the day anrciently dedicated
to the sun, and from thence called Sunday •, in Latin Dies Soils,
the day of the sun ; as the next day Monday, is Moon-day. But
there is not room in a letter to explain these things.

While man keeps to the belief of one God, his reason unites
with his creed. He is not shocked with contradictions and hor-
rid stories. His Bible is the heavens and the earth. He beholds
his Creator in all his works, and every thing he beholds inspires
him with reverence and gratitude. From the goodness of God
to all, he learns his duty to his fellow-man, and stands self-re-
proved when he transgresses it. Such a man is no persecutor.

But when he multiplies his creed with imaginary things, of
which he can have neither evidence nor conception, such as the

300 LETTER TO MR. DEAN.

tale of the Garden ofEden, the talking serpent, the fall of man, the
dreams of Joseph the carpenter, the pretended resurrection and
ascension, of which 'here is even no historical relation, for no his-
torian of those times metions such a thing, he gets into the path-
less region of confusion, and turns either fanatic or hypocrite.
He forces his mind, and pretends to believe what he does not be-
lieve. This is in general the case with the methodists. Their
religion is all creed and no morals.

I have now my friend given you a fac simile of my mind on
the subject of religion and creeds, and my wish is, that you make
this letter as publicly known as you find opportunities of doing.

Yours in friendship,

THOMAS PAINE

JV F. Jlus;. 1806

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

EXTRACTED FROM THE " PROSPECT, OR VIEW OF THE MORAL
WORLD," A PERIODICAL WORK, EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY
ELIHU PALMER, AT NEW-YORK, IN THE YEAR 1804

The following fugitive pieces were written by JMr. Paine occa-
sionally to pass off an idle hour, and communicated for the Pros-
pect, to aid his friend, Mr. Palmer, in support of that publication.
Perhaps, in some cases, it may appear that the same ideas have
been expressed in his other work ; but, if so, the various points
of view, in which they are here placed, it is presumed, will not
fail to give an interest to these miscellaneous remarks.

The same signatures are continued as were subscribed to the
original communications.

REMARKS ON R. HALL'S SERMON.

[^The foUoioi7ig piece, obligingly communicated by Mr. Paine, for the
Prospect, is full of that acuteness of mind, perspicuity of expres-
sion, and clea^iiess of discermnent for which this excellent author
is so remarkable in all his writings.^

Robert Hall, a protestant minister in England, preached and
published a sermon against what he calls " Modern Infidelity.''^ A
copy of it was sent to a gentleman in America, with a request for
his opinion thereon. That gentleman sent it to a friend of his in
New-York, with the request written on the cover — and this last
sent it to Thomas Paine, who wrote the follwing observations on
the blank leaf at the end of the Sermon.

The preacher of the foregoing sermon speaks a great deal about
infidelity, but does not define what he means by it. His harangue
IS a general exclamation. Every thing, I suppose, that is not in
his creed is infidelity with him, and his creed is infidelity with me.
fnfiddity is believing falsely. If what Christians believe is not
(rue, it is the Christians that are the infidels.

The point between deists and christians is not about doctrine,
but about fact — for if the things believed by the christians to be
facts, are not facts, the doctrine founded thereon falls of itself.
There is such a book as the bible, but is it a fact that the bible is
rercalcd religion ? The Christians cannot prove it is. They put
tradition in place of evidence, and tradition is not proof If it

26

■>0^ MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

were, the reality of witches could be proved by the same kind of
evidence.

The bibie is a history of the times of which it speaks, and his-
tory is not revel'ation. The obscene and vulgar stories in the bi-
ble are as repugnant to our ideas of the purity of a divine Being,
as the horrid cruelties and murders it ascribes to him, are repug-
nant to our ideas of his justice. It is the reverence of the Deists
for the attributes of the Deity, that causes them to reject the bible.

Is the account which the christian church gives of the person
called Jesus Christ, a fact or a fable .-* Is it a fact that he was be-
gotten by the holy Ghost ? The christians cannot prove it, for the
case does not admit of proof. The things called miracles in the
bible, such for instance as raising the dead, admitted, if Inie, of
ocular demonstration, but the story of the conception of Jesus
Christ in the womb is a case beyond miracle, for it did not admit
of demonstration. Mary, the reputed mother of Jesus, who must
be supposed to know best, never said so herself, and all the evi-
dence of it is, that the book of Matthew says, that Joseph dreamed
an angel told him so. Had an old maid of two or three hundred
years of age, brought forth a child, it would have been much bet-
ter presumptive evidence of a supernatural conception, than Mat-
thew's story of Joseph's dream about his young wife.

Is it a fact that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world, and
how is it proved ? If a God, he could not die, and as a man he
could not redeem ; how then is this redemption proved to be fact.'
It is said that Adam eat of the forbidden fruit, commonly called
an apple, and thereby subjected himself and all his posterity for
ever to eternal damnation. This is worse than visiting the sins
^f the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth p;cnera-
tions. But how was the death of Jesus Ciirist to affect or alter the
case ? — Did God thirst for blood ? If so, would it not have been
better to have crucified Adam at once upon tlie forbidden tree,
and made a new man ? Would not this have been more creafor-
like, than repairing the old one ? Or, did God, when he made
Adam, supposing the story to be true, exclude himself from the
"ight of making another ? Or impose on himself the necessity of
Dreeding from the old stock ? Priests should first prove facts and
deduce doctrines from them afterwards. But instead of this, they
jssume every thing, and prove nothing. Authorities drawn from
he bible are no more than authorities drawn from other books,
inless it can be proved that the bible is revelation.

"^Ihis story of the redemption will not stand examination. That
nan should redeem himself from the sin of eating an apple, by
•/onmiitting a murder on Jesus Christ, is the strangest system of
fcligion ever set up. Deism is perfect purity compared with this.
t is an established principle witii the quakers not to shed blood —
uppose then all Jerusalem had been quakers when Christ lived,
here would have been nobody to cr'.icify him, and in that case, if

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 303

man is redeemed by his blood, which is the belief of the church,
there could have been no redemption — and the people of Jerusa-
lem must all have been damned, because they were too good to
commit murder. The christian system of religion is an outrage
on common sense. Why is man afraid to think.'

Why do not the christians, to be consistent, make saints of Ju-
das and Pontius Pilate, fo:- they were the persons who accom-
phlished the act of salvation. The merit of a sacrifice, if there
can be anv merit in it, was never in the thing sacrificed, but in
the persons offering up the sacrifice — and therefore Judas and
l^ontius Pilate ought to stand first on t'le calendar of saints.

THOMAS PAINE.

OF THE WORD FtELIGION,

AND OTHER WORDS OF UNCERTAIN SIGNIFICATION,

The word religion is a word of forced application when used
with respect to the worship of God. The root of the word is the
Latin verb ligo, to tie or bind. From Ugo, comes religo, to tie or
bind over again, or make more fast — from rcligo comes the sub-
stantive rcUgio, which with the addition of n makes the English
substantive "religion. The French use the word properly — when
a woman enters a convent, she is called a noviciate, that is, she
is upon trial or probation. When she takes the oath, she is call-
ed a rcligieuse, that is, she is tied or bound by that oath to the
performance of it. We use the word in the same kind of sense
v.-hen we say we will religiously perform the promise that we
make.

But the word, without referring to its etymology, has, in the
manner it is used, no definitive meaning, because "it d«es not de-
signate what religion a man is of There is the religion of the
Chinese, of the Tartars, of the Bramins, of the Persians, of the
Jews, of the Turks, Slc.

The word Christianity is equally as vague as the word religion.
No two sectaries can agree what it is. It is a to lure and lo there.
The two principal sectaries. Papists and Protestants, have often
cut each other's throats about it : — The Papists call the Protes-
tants heretics', and the Protestants call the Papists idolaters.
The minor sectaries have shown the same spirit of rancour, but
as the civil law restrains them from blood, they content them-
selves with preaching damnation against each other.

304 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

The word protestant has a positive signification in the sense it
is used. It means protesting against the authority of the Pope,
and this is the only article in which the prostestants agree. In
every other sense, with respect to religion, the word protestant
is as vague as the word christian. When we say an episcopa-
lian, a prebyterian, a baptist, a quaker, we know what those per-
sons are, and what tenets they hold— but when we say a chris-
tain, we know he is not a Jew nor a Mahometan, but we know
not if he be a trinitarian or an anti-trinitariari, a believer in what
is called the immaculate conception, or a disbeliever, a man of
seven sacraments, or of two sacraments, or of none. The word
christian describes what a man is not, but not what he is.

The word Tlieohgy, from Theos, the Greek word for God, and
meaning the study and knowledge of God, is a word, that strictly
speaking, belongs to Theists or Deists, and not to the christians.
The head of the christian church is the person called Christ — but
the head of the church of the Theists, or Deists, as they are
more commonly called, from Deus, the Latin word for God, is God
hinnself, and therefore the word Theology belongs to that church
which has Theos or God for its head, and not to the christian
church which has the person called Christ for its head. Tiieir
technical word is Christianity, and they cannot agree what Chris-
tianity is.

The words revealed religion, and natural religion, require also
explanation. They are both invented terms, contrived by the
church for the support of priest-craft. With respect to the first,
there is no evideflce of any such thing, except in the universal
revelation, that God has made of his power, his wisdom, his good-
ness, in the structure of the universe, and in all the works of
creation. We have no cause or ground from any thing we be-
hold in those works, to suppose God would deal partially by man-
kind, and reveal knowledge to one nation and withhold it from
another, and then damn them for not knowing it. The sun shines
an equal quantity of light all over the world — and mankind in all
ages and countries are endued with reason, and blessed with
sight, to read the visible works of God in the creation, and so in-
telligent is this book, that he that runs miy read. We admire the
wisdom of the ancients, yet they had no bibles, nor books, called
revelation. They cultivated the reason that God gave them,
studied him in his works, and arose to eminence.

As to the bible, whether true or fabulous, it is a history, and
history is not revelation. If Solomon had seven hundred wives,
and three hundred concubines, and if Sampson slept in Delilah's
lap, and she cut his hair off, the relation of those things is mere
history, that needed no revelation from heaven to tell it ; neither
does it need any revelation to tell us that Sampson was a fool for
his pains, and Solomon too.

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES 305

As to the expression so often used in the bible, that the word
of the Lord came to such an one, or such an one, it was the
fashion of speaking in those times, like the expression used by a
quaker, that the spint moveth him, or that used by priests, that
they have a call. We ought not to be deceived by phrases be-
cause tliey are ancient. But if we admit the supposition thai
God would condescend to reveal himself in words, we ought not
to believe it would be in such idle and profligate stories as are in
the bible, and it is for this reason, among others which oui
reverence to God inspires, that the Deists deny that the book
called the bible is the word of God, or that it is revealed religion.

With respect to the term, natural religion, it is upon the face
of it the opposite of artificial religion, and it is impossible for
any man to be certain that what is called revealed 7-cligio7i, is not
artificial. Man has the power of making books, inventing sto-
ries of God, and calling them revelation or the word of God
The Koran exists as an instance that this can be done, and wc
must be credulous indeed to suppose that this is the only in-
stance, and Mahomet the only impostor. The Jews could match
him, and the church of Rome could overmatch the Jews. The
Mahometans believe the Koran, the Christians believe the Bible,
and it is education makes all the difference.

Books, whether Bibles or Korans, carry no evidence of being
the work of any other power than man. It is only that which
man cannot do that carries the evidence of being the work of a
superior power. Man could not invent and make a universe —
he could not invent nature, for nature is of divine origin. It is
the laws by which the universe is governed. When, therefore,
we look through nature up to nature's God, we are in the right
road of happiness ; but when we trust to books as the word of
God and confide in them as revealed religion, we are afloat on
an ocean of uncertainty, and shatter into contending factions.
Th^term, therefore, natural religion, explains itself to be divine
religion, and the term revealed religion involves in it the suspicion
of being artificial.

To show the necessity of understanding the meaning of words,
I will mention an instance of a minister, I believe of the episco-
palian church of Newark, in Jersey. He wrote and published
a book, and entitled it, " An Antidote to Deism.'''' An antidote to
Deism, must be Atheism. It has no other antidote — for whut can
be an antidote to the belief of a God, but the disbelief of God.
Under the tuition of such pastors, what but ignorance and false
information can be expected. T. P.

26*

306 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES,

OF CAIN AIVD ABEL.

The story of Cain and Abel is told in the fourth chapter of
Genesis ; Cain M'as the elder brother, and Abel the younger,
and Cain killed Abel. The Egyptian story of Typhon and 6si-
ris, and the Jewish story in Genesis of Cain and Abel, have the
appearance of being the same story differently told, and that it
came originally from Egypt.

In tlie Egyptian story, Typhon and Osiris are brothers ; Ty-
phon is the elder, and Osiris the younger, and Typhon kills Osi-
ris. The story is an allegory on darkness and light ; Typhon,
the elder brother, is darkness, because darkness was supposed
to be more ancient than light : Osiris is the good light who rules
during the summer months, and brings forth the "fruits of the
earth, and is the favourite, as Abel is said to have been, for
which Typhon hates him ; and when the winter comes, and cold
*nd darkness overspread the earth, Typhon is represented as
having killed Osiris out of malice, as Cain is said to have killed
Abel.

The two stories are alike in their circumstances and their
event, and are probably but the same story ; what corroborates
this opinion, is, that the fifth chapter of Genesis historically con-
tradicts the reality of the story of Cain and Abel in the fourth
chapter, for though the name of Seth, a son of Adam, is men-
tioned in the fourth chapter, he is spoken of in the fifth chap-
ter as if he was the first-born of Adam. The chapter begins
thus : —

" This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day
that God created man, in the likeness of God created he t»im
Male and female created he them, and blessed them, and called
their name Adam in the day when they were created. And
Adam lived an hundred and thirty years and begat a son, in his
own likeness and after his own image, and called his name Se/^."
The rest of the chapter goes on wfth the genealogy.

Any body reading this chapter cannot suppose there were any
sons born before Sdh. The chapter begins with what is called
the creation of Mam, and calls itself the book of the generations
of Adam, yet no mention is made of such persons as Cain and
Abel ; one thing, however, is evident on the face of these two
chapters, which is, that the same person is not the writer of both ;
the most blundering historian could not have committed himself
in such a manner.

Though I look on every thing in the first ten chapters of Gen-
esis to be fiction, yet fiction historically told should be consistent,

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 307

whereas these two chapters are not. The Cain and Abel of
Genesis appear to be no other than the ancient Egyptian story of
Typhon and Osiris, the darkness and the hght, which answered
very well as an allegory without being believed as a fact.

OF THE TOWER OF BABEL.

The story of the tower of Babel is told in the eleventh chap-
ter of Genesis. It begins thus : — " And the whole earth (it was
but a very little part of it they knew) was of one language and
of one speech. — And it came to pass as they journeyed from the
east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt
there. — And they said one to another. Go to^ let us make brick
and burn them thoroughly, and they had brick for stone, and
slime had they for mortar. — And they said. Go to, let us build us
a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us
make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the
whole earth. — And the Lord came down to see the city and the
tower which the children of men builded. — And the Lord said,
behold the people is one, and they have all one language, and
this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from
them which they have imagined to do. — Go to, let us go down and
there confound their language, that they may not understu«nd one
another's speech. — So (that is, by that means) the Lord scatter-
ed them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and
they left off building the city."

This is the story, and a very foolish inconsistent story it is.
In the first place, the familiar and irreverend manner in which
the Almighty is spoken of in this chapter, is offensive to a serious
mind. As to the project of building a tower whose top should
reach to heaven, there never could be a people so foolish as to
have such a notion ; but to represent the Almighty as jealous of
the attempt, as the writer of the story has done, is adding profa-
nation to folly. ^'Goto,^^ say the builders, " let us build us a
tower whose top shall reach to heaven." " Go to,'''' says God,
" let us go down and confound tlieir language." This quaintness
is indecent, and the reason given for it is worse, for, " now no-
thing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to
do." This is representing the Almighty as jealous of their get-
ting into heaven. The story is too ridiculous, even as a fable, to
account for the diversity of languages in the world, for which it
seems to have been intended.

303 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

As to the project of confounding their language for the pur-
pose of making them separate, it is altogether inconsistent ; be-
cause, instead of producing this effect, it would, by increasing
their difficuhies, render them more necessary to each other, and
cause them to keep together. Where could they go to better
tliernselves ?

Another observation upon this story is, the inconsistency of it
with respect to the opinion that the bible is the word of God giv-
en for the information of mankind : for nothing could so effectu-
ally prevent such a word being known by mankind as confounding
their language. The people who after this spoke different lan-
guages could no more understand such a word generally, than the
builders of Babel could understand one another. It would have
been necessary, therefore, had such "word ever been given or in-
tended to be given, that the whole earth should be, as they say
it was at first, of one language and of one speech, and that it
should never have been confounded.

Tlie case however is, that the bible will not bear examination
in any part of it, which it would do if it was the word of God.
Those who most believe it are those who know least about it, and
priests always take care to keep the inconsistent and contradic-
tory Darts out of sight. T. P

Of the religion of Deism compared with the Christian Religion, and
the superiority of the former over the latter.

Every person, of whatever religious denomination he may be,
is a Deist in the first article of his Creed. Deism, from the Latin
word Dens, God, is the belief of a God, and this beHef is the first
article of every man's creed.

It is on this article, universally consented to by all mankind,
that the Deist builds his church, and here he rests. Whenever
we step aside from this article, by mixing it with articles of hu-
man invention, we wander into a labyrinth of uncertainty and fa-
ble, and become exposed to every kind of imposition by pretend-
ers to revelation. The Persian shows the Zendavista of Zoro-
aster, the lawgiver of Persia, and calls it the divine law ; the
Bramin shows the Shaster, revealed, he says, by God to Brama,
and given to him out of a cloud ; the Jew shows what he calls
the law of Moses, given, he .says, by God, on the Mount Sinai ;
the Christian shows a collection of books and epistles, written by
nobody knows who, and called the New Testament ; and the

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 309

Mahometan shows the Koran, given, he says, by God to Mahond-
ct : each of these calls itself revealed religion, and the only true
word of God, and this the followers of each profess to beheve
from the habit of education, and each believes the others are im-
posed upon.

But when the divine gift of reason begins to expand itself in the
mind and calls man to reflection, he then reads and contemplates
God in his works, and not in books pretending to be revelations.
The Creation is the bible of the true believer in God. Every
thing in this vast volume inspires him with sublime ideas of the
Creator. The little and paltry, and often obscene, tales of the
bible sink into wretchedness when put in comparison with this
mighty work. Ihe Deist needs none of those tricks and shows
called miracles to confirm his faith, for what can be a greater mira-
cle than the Creation itself, and his own existence.

There is a happiness in Deism, when rightly understood, that is
not to be found in any other system of religion. All other systems
have something in them that either shock our reason, or are re-
pugnant to it, and man, if he thinks at all, must stifle his reason in
order to force himself to believe them. But in Deism our reason
and our belief become happily united. The wonderful structure
of the universe, and every thing we behold in the system of the
creation, prove to us, far better than books can do, the existence of
a God, and at the same time proclaim his attributes. It is by the
exercise of our reason that we are enabled to contemplate God in
his works and imitate him in his ways. When we see his care and
goodness e.xtended over all his creatures, it teaches us our duty
towards each other, while it calls forth our gratitude to him. It
is by forgetting God in his works, and running after the books of
pretended revelation that man has wandered from the straight
path of duty and happiness, and become by turns the victim of
doubt and the dupe of delusion.

Except in the first article in the Christian creed, that of believ-
ing in God, there is not an article in it but fills the mind with
doubt as to the truth of it, the instant man begins to think. Now
every article in a creed that is necessary to the happiness and sal-
vation of man, ought to be as evident to the reason and compre-
hension of man as tho fir.st article is, for God has not given us
reason for tho purpose of confounding us, but that we should use
it for our own happiness and his glory.

The truth of the first article is proved by God himself, and is
universal ; for the crealion is of itself dcnwnstralion of the existence
of a Creator. But the second article, that of God's begetting a
son, is not proved in like manner, and stands on no other author-
ity than that of a tale. Certain books in what is called the New
Testament tell us that Joseph dreamed that an angel told him so.
(Matthew chap 1, v. 20.) "And behold the angcl of the Lord
appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Joseph thou son of David,

310 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

fear not to take imto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is con-
ceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." The evidence upon this ar-
ticle bears no comparison with the evidence upon the first article,
and therefore is not entitled to the same credit, and ought not to
be made an article in a creed, because the evidence of it is defec-
tive, and what evidence there is, is doubtful and suspicious. We
do not believe the first article on the authority of books, whether
called Bibles or Korans, nor yet on the visionary authority of
dreams, but on the authority of God's own visible works in the
creation. The nations who never heard of such books, nor of
such people as Jews, Christians, or Mahometans, believe the e.xist-
cnce of a God as fully as we do, because it is self evident. The
work of man's hands is a proof of the existence of man as fully as
his personal appearance would be. When we see a watch, we
have as positive evidence of the existence of a watch-maker, as
if we saw him ; and in like manner the creation is evidence to our
reason and our senses of the existence of a Creator. But there
is nothing in the works of God that is evidence that he begat a son,
nor any thing in the system of creation that corroborates such an
idea, and therefore we are not authorized in believing it.

But presumption can assume any thing, and therefore it makes
Joseph's dream to be of equal authority with the existence of
God, and to help it on calls it revelation. It is impossible for tho
mind of man in its serious moments, however it may have been
entangled by education, or beset by priest-craft, not to stand still
and doubt upon the truth of this article and of its creed. Hut
this is not all.

The second article of the Christian creed having brought the
son of IVIary into the world, (and this Mary, according to the
chronological tables, was a girl of only fifteen years of age when
this son was born,) the next article goes on to account for his be-
ing begotten, which was, that when he grew a man he should be
put to death, to expiate, they say, the sin that Adam brought into
the world by eating an Jipple or some kind of forbidden truit.

But though this is the creed of the church of Rome, from
whence the Protestants borrowed it, it is a creed which (hat church
has manufactured of itself, for it is not contained in, nor derived
from, the book called the New Testament. The four books call-
ed the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which give,
or pretend to give, the birth, sayings, life, preaching, and death
of Jesus Christ, make no mention of what is called the fall of
m.-in ; nor is the name of Adam to be found in any of those books,
which it certainly would be, if the writers of them believed that
Jesus was begotten, born, and died for the purpose of redeeming
jnankind from the sin which Adam had brought into the world.
Jesus never speaks of Adam himself, of the garden of Eden, nor
of wliat is called the fall of man.

But the church of Rome having set up its new religion which

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 511

it called Christianity, and invented the creed which it named the
apostles creed, in which it calls Jesus the onlij son of God, con-
ceived by the Hohj Ghost, and horn of the Virgin Marij, things of
wliich it is impossible that man or woman can have any idea, and
consequently no belief but in words ; and for which there is no
authority but the idle story of Joseph's dream in the first chapter
of Matthew, which any designing impostor or foolish fancitic
might make. It then manufactured the allegories in the book
of Genesis into fact, and the allegorical tree of life and the tree
of knowledge into real trees, contrary to the belief oT the first
christians, and for which there is not the least authority in any
of the books of the New Testament ; for in none of them is tliere
any mention made of such place as the Garden of Eden, nor of
any thing that is said to have happened there.

But the church of Rome could not erect the person called Je-
sus into a Saviour of the world without making the allegories in
the book of Genesis into fact, though the New Testament, as be-
fore observed, gives no authority for it. All at once the allego-
rical tree of knowledge became, according to the church, a real
tree, the fruit of it real fruit, and the eating of it sinful. As
priest-craft was always the enemy of knowledge, because priest-
craft supports itself by keeping people in delusion and ignorance,
it was consistent with its policy to make the acqusition of knowl-
edge a real sin.

The church of Rome having done this, it then brings forward
Jesus the son of Mary as suffering death to redeem mankind
from sin, which Adam, it says, had brought into the world by eat-
ing the fruit of the tree of knowledge. But as it is impossible
for reason to believe such a story, because it can see no reason
for it, nor have any evidence of it, the church then tells us we
must not regard our reason, but miist believe, as it were, and that
through thick and thin, as if God had given man reason like a
plaything, or a rattle, on purpose to make fun of him. Reason
is the forbidden tree of priest-craft, and may serve to explain the
allegory of the forbidden tree of knowledge, for we may reason-
ably suppose the allegory had some meaning and application at
the time it was invented. It was the practice of the eastern na-
tions to convey their meaning by allegory, and relate it in the
manner of fact. Jesus followed the same method, yet nobody
ever supposed the allegory or parable of the Rich Man and Laz-
arus, the Prodigal Son, the ten Virgins, &.c. were facts. AVhy
then should the tree of knowledge, which is far more romantic in
idea than the parables in the New Testament are, be supposed
to be a real tree.* The answer to this is, because the church

*Tlie remark of Emperor Jiilien, on the storj- of the Tree of Knowledge is worth
oljscrviiip;, " If," said he, " there ever had lieen, or could \)e, a Tree of Knowledge,
iiisteail of God forbidding man to eat thereof, it would be that of which he would or-
Aur him to •jut the most."

312 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

could not make its new fangled system, which it called Christian'
ity, hold together without it. To have made Christ to die on ac-
count of an allegorical tree would have been too bare-faced a
fable.

But the account, as it is given of Jesus in the New Testament,
even visionary as it is, does not support the creed of the church
that he died for the redemption of the world. According to that
account he was crucified and buried on Friday^ and rose again
in good health on the Sunday morning, for we do not hear that
he was sick. This cannot be called dying, and is rather maku.g
fun of death than suffering it. There ore thousands of men and
women also, who, if they could know they should come back
again in good health in about thirty-six hours, would prefer such
kind of death for the sake of the experiment, and to know what
the other side of tiie grave was. Why then should that which
would be only a voyage of curious amusement to us be magnifi-
ed into merit and sufferings in him ? If a God he could not suf^
fer death, for immortality cannot die, and as a man his death
could be no more than tlie death of any other person.

The belief of the redemption of Jesus Christ is altogether
an invention of the church of Rome, not the doctrine of the
New Testament. What the writers cf the New Testament at-
tempt to prove by the story of Jesus is, the resurrection of the
same body from the grave, which was the belief of the Pharisees,
in opposition to the Sadducees (a sect of Jews) who denied it.
Paul, who was brought up a Pharisee, labours hard at this point,
for it was the creed of his own Pharisaical church. The XV.
chap. 1st of Corinthians is full of supposed cases and assertions
about the resurrection of the same body, but there is not a word
in it about redemption. This chapter makes part of the funeral
service of the Episcopal church. The dogma of the redemp-
tion is the fable of priest-crafl invented since the time the New
Testament was compiled, and the agreeable delusion of it suited
with the depravity of immoral livers. When men are taught to
ascribe all their crimes and vices to the temptations of the Devil,
and to believe that Jesus, by his death, rubs all off and pays their
passage to heaven gratis, they become as careless in morals as
a spendthrift would be of money, were he told that his father
had engaged to pay off all his scores. It is a doctrine, not only
dangerous to morals in this world, but to our happiness in the
next world, because it holds out such a cheap, easy, and lazy
way of getting to heaven as has a tendency to induce men to
hug the delusion of it to their own injury.

But there are times when men have serious thoughts, and it is
at such times when they begin to think, that they begin to doubt
the trutii of the Christian religion, and well they may, for it is
too fanciful and too full of conjecture, inconsistency, improbabil-
ity, and irrationality, to afford consolation to the thoughtful man.

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 313

His reason revolts against his creed. He sees that none of its
articles are proved or can be proved. He may believe that such
a person as is called Jesus (for Christ was not his name) was
born and grew to be a man, because it is no more than a natural
and probable case. But who is to prove he is the son of God,
that he was begotten by the Holy Ghost .'' Of these things there
can be no proof ; and that which admits not of proof, and is
against the laws of probability, and the order of nature, which
God himself has established, is not an object for belief God has
not given man reason to embarrass him, but to prevent his being
imposed upon.

He may believe that Jesus was crucified, because many oth-
ers were crucified, but who is to prove he was crucified for the
shis of the xuorld 1 This article has no evidence, not even in the
New Testament ; and if it had, where is the proof that the
New Testament, in relating things neither probable nor provea-
ble, is to be believed as true ? When an article in a creed does
not admit of proof nor of probability, the salvo is to call it reve-
lation : But this is only putting one difficulty in the place of an-
other, for it is as impossible to prove a thing to be revelation as
it is to prove that Mary was gotten with child by the Holy Ghost.

Here it is that the religion of Deism is superior to the chris-
tian religion. It is free from all those invented and torturing
articles that shock our reason or injure our humanity, and with
which the Christian religion abounds. Its creed is pure and
sublimely simple. It believes in God, and there it rests. It
honours reason as the choicest gift of God to man, and the fac-
ulty by which he is enabled to contemplate the power, wisdom
and goodness of the Creator displayed in the creation ; and re-
posing itself on his protection, both here and hereafter, it avoids
all presumptuous beliefs, and rejects, as the fabulous inventions
of men, all books pretending to revelation. T P.

27

514 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY, STYLING ITSELF THE
MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

The JVetv-York Gazette of the I6th (^Jitigust) contains thefoUomng
article — " On Tuesday, a Committee of the Missionary Society.,
consisting chiefly of distinguished Clergymen, had an iiitcrview at
the City Hotel, ivith the Chiefs of thz Osage tribe of Indians,
now in this City, US'ew-York) to whom they presented a Bible,
together ivith an Jladress, the object of tvhich teas,' to inform them
that this good book contained the will and laws of the GREAT
SPIRIT."

It is to be hoped some humane person will, on account of our
people on the frontiers, as well as of the Indians, undcceivo
them with respect to the present the Missionaries have made
them, and which they call a good book, containing, they say, the
will and laxus of the GREAT SPIRIT. Can tliose Missionaries
suppose that the assassination of men, women, and children, and
sucking infants, related in the books ascribed to Moses, Joshua,
&c. and blasphemously said to be done by the command of tho
Lord, the Great Spirit, can be edifying to our Indian neighbours,
or advantageous to us ? Is not the Bible warfare the same kind
of warfare as the Indians themselves carry on, that of indiscrim-
inate destruction, and against which humanity shudders ; can the
horrid examples and vulgar obscenity, with which the Bible
abounds, improve the morals, or civilize the manners of the In-
dians ? Will they learn sobriety and decency from drunken
Noah and beastly Lot ; or will their daughters be edified by the
example of Lot's daughters ? Will the prisoners they take in
war be treated the better by their knowing the horrid story of
Samuel's hewing Agag in pieces like a block of wood, or David's
putting them under harrows of Iron ? Will not the shocking
accounts of the destruction of the Canaanites when the Israel-
ites invaded their country, suggest the idea that we may serve
them in the same manner, or the accounts stir tiiem up to do the
like to our people on the frontiers, and then justify the assassina-
tion by the Bible the Missionaries have given them ? Will those
Alissionary Societies never leave off doing mischief ?

In the account which this missionary Committee gave of their
interview, they make the Chief of the Indians to say, that, '' as
neither he nor his people could read it, he begged tliat some
good wliite man might be sent to instruct them."

It is necessary the General Govermnont keep a strict eye over
ihose jMissionary Societies, who under the pretence of in^Liuct-

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES 315

ing the Indians, send spies into their country to find out the best
lands. No society should be permitted to have intercourse with
the Indian tribes, nor send any person among them, but with the
knowledge and consent of the Government. The present ad-
ministration has brought the Indians into a good disposition, and
is improving them in the moral and civil comforts of life ; but if
these self-created societies be suffered to interfere, and send their
speculating Missionaries among them, the laudable object of
Government will be defeated. Priests, we know, are not remark-
able for doing any thing gratis ; they have, in general, some
scheme in every thing they do, either to impose on the ignorant
or derange the operations of Government.

A FRIEND TO THE INDIANS.

OF THE SABBATH DAY OF CONNECTICUT.

The word Sabbath means rest, that is, cessation from labour ;
but the stupid Blue Laws* of Connecticut make a labour of rest,
for they oblige a person to sit still from sun-rise to sun-set on a
Sabbath day, which is hard work. Fanaticism made those laws,
and hypocrisy pretends to reverence them, for where such laws
prevail hypocrisy will prevail also.

One of those laws says, " No person shall run on a Sabbath
day, nor walk in his garden, nor elsewhere, but reverently to and
from meeting." These fanatical hypocrites forget that God
dwells not in temples made with hands, and that the earth is full
of his glory. One of the finest scenes and subjects of religious
contemplation is to walk into the woods and 'fields, and survey
the works of the God of the Creation. The wide expanse of
heaven, the earth covered with verdure, the lofty forest, the wav-
ing corn, the magnificent roll of mighty rivers, and the murmur-
ing melody of the cheerful brooks, are scenes that inspire the
mind with gratitude and delight ; but this the gloomy Calvinist
of Connecticut must not behold on a Sabbath day. Entombed
within the walls of his dwelling, he shuts from his view the tem-
ple of creation. The sun shines no joy to him. The gladden-
ing voice of nature calls on him in vain. He is deaf, dumb, and
blind to every thing around him that God has made. Such is
the Sabbath day of Connecticut.

From whence could come this miserable notion of devotion ?
It comes from the gloominess of the Calvinistic creed. If men

* They were called Blue Laws because tUey were originally printed on blue paper.

316 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

love darkness rather than Hght. because their works are evil, the
ulcerated mind of a Calvinist, who sees God only in terror, and
sits brooding over the scenes of hell and damnation, can have
no joy in beholding the glories of the creation. Nothing in that
mighty and wondrous system accords with his principles or his
devotion. He sees nothing there that tells him that God created
millions on purpose to be damned, and that children of a span
long are born to burn for ever in hell. The creation preaches a
different doctrine to this. We there see that the care and good-
ness of God is extended impartially over all the creatures he has
made. The worm of the earth shares his protection equally with
the elephant of the desert. The grass that springs beneath our
feet grows by his bounty as well as the cedars of Lebanon. Ev-
ery thing in the creation reproaches the Calvinist with unjust ide-
as of God, and disowns the hardness and ingratitude of his prin-
ciples. Therefore he shuns the sight of them on a Sabbath day.
AN ENEMY TO CANT AND IMPOSITION

OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT.

Archbishop Tillotson says, " The difference between the
style of the Old and New Testament is so very remarkable, that
one of the greatest sects in the primitive times, did, upon this
very ground, found their heresy of tjvo Gods, the one evil, fierce,
and cruel, whom they called the God of the Old Testament ;
the other good, kind, and merciful, whom they called the God of
the New Testament ; so great a difference is there between the
representations that are given of God in the books of the Jewish
and Christian Religion, as to give, at least, some colour and pre-
tence to an imagination of two Gods." Thus far Tillotson.

But the case was, that as the Church had picked out several
passages from the Old Testament, which she most absurdly and
falsely calls prophecies of Jesus Christ, (whereas there is no pro-
phecy of any such person, as any one may see by examining the
passages and the cases to which they apply,) she was under the
necessity of keeping up the credit of the Old Testament, be-
cause if that fell the other would soon follow, and the Christian
system of faith would soon be at an end. As a book of morals,
there are several parts of the New Testament that are good :
but they are no other than what had been preached in the East-
ern world several hundred years before Christ was born. Con-
fucius, the Chinese philosopher, Nvho lived live hundred years

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 317

before the time of Christ, says, achvoicledge thy benefits by the
reUirn of benefits, but nevei' revenge injuries.

The clergy in Popish countries were cunning enough to know,
that if the Old Testament was made public, the fallacy of the
New, with respect to Christ, would be detected, and they pro-
hibited the iLse of it, and always took it away wherever they
tbund it. The Deists, on the contrary, always encouraged the
reading it, that people might see and judge for themselves, that
a Book so full of contradictions and wickedness, could not be
the word of God, and that we dishonour God by ascribing it to

A TRUE DEIST.

Hints toivards fonimig a Society for incpdring into the truth or
falsehood of ancient Hislonj, so far as History is connected with
STjstems of religion, ancient and modern.

It has been customary to class history into three divisions, dis-
tinguished by the names of Sacred, Profane, and Ecclesiastical.
By the first is meant the Bible ; by the second, the history of
nations, of men and things ; and by the third, the history of the
church and its priesthood.

Nothing is more easy than to give names, and therefore mere
names signify nothing unless they lead to the discovery of some
cause for which that name was given. For example, Simday is
the name given to the first day of the week, in the English lan-
guage, and it is the same in the Latin, that is, it has the same
meaning, {Dies SoUs) and also in the German, and in several
other languages. Why then was this name given to that day ?
Because it was the day dedicated by the ancient world to the
luminary, which in English we call the Sun, and therefore the
day Sun-day, or the day of the Sun ; as in the like manner we
call the second day Monday, the day dedicated to the Moon.

Here the name, Sunday, leads to the cause of its being called
90, and we have visible evidence of the fact, because we behold
the Sun from whence the name comes ; but this is not the case
when we distinguish one part of history from another by the
name of Sacred. A'U histories have been written by men. We
have no evidence, nor any cause to believe, that any have been
written by God. That part of the Bible called the Old Testa-
ment, is the history of the Jewish nation, from the time of Abra-
ham, which begins in the 11th chap, of Genesis, to the downfall
27*

318 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

of that nation by Nebuchadnezzar, and is no more entitled to be
called sacred than any other history. It is altogether the con-
trivance of priestcraft that has given it that name. So far from
its being sacred, it has not the appearance of being true in many
of the things it relates. It must be better authority than a book,
which any impostor might make, as Mahomet made the Koran,
to make a thoughtful man believe that the sun and moon stood
still, or that Moses and Aaron turned the Nile, which is larger
than the Delaware, into blood, and that the Egyptian magicians
did the same. These things have too much the appearance of
romance to be believed for fact.

It would be of use to inquire, and ascertain the time, when
tliat part of the bible called the Old Testament first appeared.
From all that can be collected there was no such book till after
the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon, and that it is the
work of the Pharisees of the Second Temple. How they came
to make the 19th chapter of the 2d book of kings, and the 37th
of Isaiah, word for word alike, can only be accounted for by
their having no plan to go by, and not knowing what they were
about. The same is the case with respect to the last verses in
the 2d book of Chronicles, and the first verses in Ezra, they also
are word for word alike, which shows that the Bible has been put
together at random.

But besides these things there is great reason to believe we
have been imposed upon, with respect to the antiquity of the
bible, and especially M'ith res^^ect to the books ascribed to Moses.
Herodotus, who is called the father of history, and is the most
ancient historian whose works have reached to our time, and
who travelled into Egypt, conversed with the priests, historians,
astronomers, and learned men of that country, for the purpose
of obtaining all the information cf it he could, and who gives an
account of the ancient state of it, makes no mention of such a
man as Moses, though the bible makes him to have been the
greatest hero there, nor of any one circumstance mentioned in
the book of Exodus, respecting Egypt, such as turning the riv-
ers into blood, the dust into lice, the death of the lirst born
throughout all the land of Egypt, the passage of the Red-sea,
the drowning of Pharaoh and all his host, things which could
not have been a secret in Egypt, and must have been generaliv
known, had they been facts ; and therefore as no sueii things
were known in Egypt, nor any such rnan as Moses, at the time
Herodotus was there, which is about two thousand two hundred
years ago, it shows that the account of these things in the book
ascribed to Moses is a made story of later times, that is, after
the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, and that
Moses is not the author of the books ascribed to him.

With respect to the cosmogany, or account of the creation in
the first chapter of Genesis, of the Garden of Eden in the sec-

MISCELLANEOUS PIE'CE?. 319

ond chapter, and of what is called the fall of man in the third
chapter, there is something concerning them we are not histori-
cally acquainted with. In none of the books of the bible after
Genesis, are any of these things mentioned, or even alluded to.
How is this to be accounted for .'' The obvious inference is, that
either they were not known, or not believed to be facfe, by the
writers of the other books of the bible, and that Moses is not the
author of the chapters where these accounts are given.

The next question on the case is, how did the Jews come by
these notions, and at what time were they written ?

To answer this question we must first consider what the state
of the world was at the time the Jews began to be a people, for
the Jews are but a modern race, compared with the antiquity of
other nations. At the time there were, even by their own ac-
count, but thirteen Jews or Israelites in the world, Jacob and his
twelve sons, and fiur of these were bastards. The nations of
Egypt, Chaldea, Persia and India, were great and populous,
abounding in learning and science, particularly in the knowledge
of Astronomy, of which the Jews were always ignorant. The
chronological tables mention, that eclipses were observed at Ba-
bylon above two thousand years before the Christian era, which
was before there was a single Jew or Israelite in the world.

All those ancient nations had their cosmoganies, that is, their
accounts how the creation was made, long before there was such
people as Jews or Israelites. An account of these cosmoganies
of India and Persia is given by H'enry Lord, Chaplain to the
East India Company, at Surat, and pubHshed in London in 1630.
The writer of this has seen a copy of the edition of 1630, and
made extracts from it. The work, which is now scarce, was
dedicated by Lord to the Arch Bishop of Canterbury.

We know that the Jews were carried captives into Babylon, by
Nebuchadnezzar, and remained in captivity several years, when
they were liberated by Cyrus, king of Persia. During their captiv-
ity they would have had an opportunity of acquiring some knowl-
edge of the cosmogany of the Persians, or at least of getting some
ideas how to fabricate one to put at the head of their own histo-
ry after their return from captivity. This will account for the
cause, for some cause there must have been, that no mention, nor
reference is made to the cosmogany in Genesis in any of the
books of the bible, supposed to have been written before the
captivity, nor is the name of Adam to be found in any of those
books.

The books of Chronicles were written after the return of the
Jews from captivity, for the third chapter of the first book gives
a list of all th-c Jewish klnrjs from David to Zedekiah, who was
carried captive into Babylon, and to four generations beyond the
time of Zedekiah. In the first verse of the first chapter of this
book the name of Adam is mentioned, but not in any book in the

320 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

bible, written before that time, nor could it be, for Adam and Eve
are names taken from the cosmogany of the Persians, Henry
Lord, in his- book, written from Surat, and dedicated, as I have
already said, to the Arch Bishop of Canterbury, says that in the
Persian cosmogany the name of the first man was Mamoh, and
of the wcftnan Hevah* From hence comes the Adam and Eve
of the book of Genesis. In the cosmogany of India, of which
I shall speak in a future number, the name of the first man was
Pouroiis, and of the woman Parcoutcc. Vs e want a knowledge
of the Sanscrit language of India to understand the meaning of
the names, and I mentioned it in this place, only to show that it
is from the cosmogany of Persia rather than that of India that
the cosmogany in Genesis has been fabricated by the Jews, who
returned from captivity by the liberality of Cyrus, king of Per-
sia. There is, however,- reason to conclude, on the authority of
Sir William Jones, who resided several years in India, that these
names were very expressive in the language to which they be-
longed, for in speaking of this language he says (see the Asiatic
researches) " The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity,
is of wonderful structure ; it is more perfect than the Greek, more
copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either."
These hints, which are intended to be continued, will serve to
show that a society for inquiring into the ancient state of the
world, and the state of ancient history, so far as history is con-
nected with systems of religion ancient and modern, may become
a useful and instructive institution. There is good reason to be-
lieve we have been in great error, with respect to the antiquity
of the Bible, as well as imposed upon by its contents. Truth
ought to be the object of every man ; for without truth there can
be no real happiness to a thoughtful mind, or any assurance of
happiness hereafter. It is the duty of man to obtain all the
knowledge he can, and then make the best use of it

T. P.

TO MR. MOOIIE, OF NEW YORK,

COMMONLY CALLED

BISHOP MOORE.

I HAVE read in the newspapers your account of the visit you
made to the unfortunate General Hamilton, and of administering

* In an English edition of the Bible, in 15S3, tlie first woman is called Hevah.

Editor of the Prospect.

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES,

321

to him a ceremony of your church, which you call the Holy CoirU'
munion.

I regret the fate of General Hamilton, and I so far hope with
you that it will be a warning to thoughtless man not to sport
away the life that God has given him ; but with respect to other
parts of your letter I think it very reprehensible, and betrays
great ignorance of what true religion is. But you are a priest,
you get your living by it, and it is not your worldly interest to
undeceive youi-self.

After giving an account of your administering to the deceased
what you call the Holy Communion, you add, " By reflecting on
this melancholy event, let the humble believer be encouraged
ever to hold fast that precious faith which is the oiily source of
frne consolation in the last extremity of nature. Let the infidel
be persuaded to abandon his opposition to the Gospel."

To show you, sir, that your promise of consolation from scrip-
ture has no foundation to stand upon, I will cite to you one of
the greatest falsehoods upon record, and which was given, as the
record says, for the purpose, and as a promise of consolation.

In the epistle called " the First Epistle of Paul to the Tiies-
salonians," (chap. 4) the writer consoles the Thessalonians as to
the case of their friends who were already dead. He does this
by informing them, and he does it he says, by the word of the
Lord, (a most notorious falsehood) that the general resurrection
of the dead, and the ascension of the living, will be in his and
their days ; that their friends will then come to life again ; that
the dead in Christ will rise first. — " Then we, (says he, v. 17)
which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with
TiiEM hi the clouds, io meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we
ever be with the Lord — wherefore comfort one another with these
words."

Delusion and falsehood cannot be carried higher than they are
in this passage. You, sir, are but a novice in the art. The
words admit of no equivocation. The whole passage is in the
first person and the present tense, '' JVe which are alive.'''' Had
the writer meant a future time, and a distant generation, it must
have been in the third person and the future tense, " Theij who
shall then be aHve." I am thus particular for the purpose of
nailing you down to the text, that you may not ramble from it,
nor put other constructions upon the words than they will bear,
which priests are very apt to do.

Now, sir, it is impossible for serious man, to whom God has
given the divine gifl of reason, and who employs that reason to
reverence and adore the God that gave it, it is, I say, impossible
for such a man to put confidence in a book that abounds with
fable and falsehood, as the New Testament does. This passage
is but a sample of what I could give you.

922 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

You call on those whom you style " vifidtls,^'' (and tliey in re-
turn might call you an idolater, a worshipper of false gods, a
preacher of false doctrine) " to abandon their opposition to the
Gospel." Prove, sir, the Gospel to be true, and the opposition
will cease of itself ; but until you do this, (which we know you
cannot do) you have no right to expect they will notice your call.
If by infidels you mean Deists, (and you must be exceedingly ig-
norant of the origin of the word Deist, and know but little of
IJetis, to put that construction upon it,) you will find yourself
over-matched if you begin to engage in a controversy with them.
Priests may dispute with priests, and sectaries with sectaries,
about the meaning of what they agree to call scripture, and end
as they began ; but when you engage with a Deist you must
keep to fact. Now, sir, you cannot prove a single article of
your religion to be true, and we tell you so publicly. Do it, if
you can. The Deistical article, f/ie helief of a Goc/, with which
your creed begins, has been borrowed by your church from the
ancient Deists, and even this article you dishonour by putting a
dream-hcgottcn phantom,* which you call his son, over his head,
and treating God as if he was superannuated. Deism is the only
profession of religion that admits of worshipping and reverencing
God in purity, and the only one on which the thoughtful mind
can repose with undisturbed tranquillity. God is almost forgotten
in the Christian religion. Every thing, even the creation, is as-
cribed to the son of Mary.

In religion, as in every thing else, perfection consists in sim-
plicity. The Christian religion of Gods within Gods, like wheels
within wheels, is like a complicated machine, that never goes
right, and every projector in the art of Christianity is trying to
mend it. It is its defects that have caused such a number and
variety of tinkers to be hammering at it, and still it goes wrong.
In the visible world no time-keeper can go equally true with the
sun ; and in like manner, no complicated religion can be equally
true with the pure and unmixed religion of Deism.

Had you not offensively glanced at a description of men whom
you call by a false name, you would not h:ive been troubled nor
honoured with this address ; neither has the writer of it any de-
sire or intention to enter into controversy with you. lie thinks
the temporal establishment of your church politicallv unjust and
offensively unfair ; but with respect to religion itself, distinct from
temporal establishments, he is happy in the enjoyment of his
own, and he leaves you to make tlie best vou ran of ynnrs.

A MEMBER OF THE DEIStlCAL CHURCH.

* The first cliiiptor of MaUhcw, i<'l.ite.s lliat Josopli, llie hctmlhed !iiisl)aiifl of Mary,
(Iroaiiiecl that an aiigcl toll hicii lh.it his iiili-'ndcil hriJi: was witli child liy tlie Itoly
(■host. It is not i;veiy husljaml, whether <"ir[)('nicr or priest, that can Ix; so easily
fwlislied* for lo ! it wi'.sa dream. W'hellier Mary was in a dream when this was done,
we arc not told. It is, howe\er, a comical story. Tliere is no woman living can
uiidcrstaii I it.

MIECELLANEOUS PIECES. 32S

TO JOHN MASON,

One of the Ministers of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, of JVew-
Yorky wUh Remarks on his account of the visit he made to the late
General Hamilton.

" Come note, let us reason together, saith the Lord.'''' This is
one of the passages you quoted from your bible, in your conver-
sation with General Hamilton, as given in your letter, signed
with your name, and published in the Commercial Advertiser,
and other New- York papers, and I re-quote the passage to show
that your Text and your Religion contradict each other.

It is impossible to reason upon things not comprehens'ihh by
reasoii ; and therefore, if you keep to your text, which priests
seldom do, (for they are generally either above it, or below it, or
forget it,) you must admit a religion to which reason can apply,
and this, certainly, is not the Christian religion.

There is not an article in the Christian religion that is co^niz-
able by reason. The Deistical article of your religion, the be-
li'f of a God, is no more a Christian article than it is a Mahom-
etan article. It is an universal article, common to all religions,
and which is held in greater purity by Turks than by Christians ;
but the Deistical church is the only one which holds it in real
purity ; because that church acknowledges no co-partnership
with God. It believes in him solely, and knows nothing of Sons,
married Virgins, nor Ghosts. It holds all these things to be the
fables of priest-craft.

■ Why then do you talk of reason, or refer to it, since your re-
ligion has nothing to do with reason, nor reason with that. You
tell people, as you told HamiMon, that they must have faith !
Faith in what ^ You ought to know tliat before the mind can
have faith in any thing, it must either know it as a fact, or see
cause to believe it on the probability of tliat kind of evidence that
is cognizable by reason : but your religion is not within either
of these cases ; for, in the first place, you cannot prove it to be
fact ; and in the second place, you cannot support it by reason,
not only because it is not cognizable by reason, but because it is
contrary to reason. What reason can there be in supposing, or
believing, that God put himself to death, to satisfy himself, and be
revenged on the Devil on account of Adam ; for tell the story which
way you will it comes to this at last.

As you can make no appeal to reason in support of an unrea-
sonable religion, you then (and others of your profession) bring
yourselves off by telling people, they must not believe in reason,
but in revelation. This is the artifice of habit without reflection.
It is putting words in the place of things ; for do you not see, tlkat
when you tell people to believe in revelation you must first prove

324 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

that what you call revelation, is revelation ; and as you cannot
do this, you put the word which is easily spoken, in the place of
the thing you cannot prove. You have no more evidence that
your Gospel is revelation, than the Turks have that their Koran
is revelation, and the only difference between them and you is,
that they preach their delusion and you preach yours.

In your conversation with General Hamilton, you say to him,
" The simple truths of the Gospel, which require no abstruse in-
vestigation, but faith in the veracity of God, ivho cannot lie, are
best suited to your present condition."

If those matters you call " simple truths,''^ are what you call
them, and require no abstruse investigation, they would be so ob-
vious that reason would easily comprehend them ; yet the doc-
trine you preach at other times is, that the mijsteries of the Gospel
are beijond the reach of reason. If your first position be true,
that they are simple truths, priests are unnecessary, for we do not
want preachers to tell us the sun shines ; and if your second be
true, the case, as to effect, is the same, for it is tvaste of money
to pay a man to explain unexplainable things, and loss of time to
listen to him. That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argu-
ment, because it is no proof that priests cannot, or that the bible does
not. Did not Paul lie when he told the Thessalonians that the
general resurrection of the dead would be in his life-time, and
that he should go up alive along with them into the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air. 1 Thes. chap. 4, v. 17.

You spoke of what you call, " the precious blood of Christ^
This savage style of language belongs to the priests of the Chris-
tian religion. The professors of this religion say they are shock-
ed at the accounts of human sacrifices of which they read in the
histories of some countries. Do they not see ihat their own reli-
gion is founded on a human sacrifice, the blood of man, of which
their priests talk like so many butchers. It is no wonder the
Christian religion has been so bloody in its eflects, for it began
in blood, and many thousands of human sacrifices have since been
offered on the altar of the Christian religion.

It is necessary to the character of a religion, asboino; true, and
immutable as God himself is, tliat the evidence of it he eqrially
the same through all periods of time and circumstance. This is
not the case with the Christian religion, nor v/itli that oftl'.c Jews
that preccedcd it, (for there was a time, and tliat within the know-
ledge of history, when these religions did not exist) nor is it the
case with any religion we know of but the religion of Deism.
In this the evidences are eternal and universal. — " T^he heavens de-
clare the glorJj of God, and the firmamcnl showcth his handy ivork,- —
I^aij tinto (Imj uttereth speech, a-nd night unto night slioweth hwiv-
ledgey* But all other religions are made to arise from some lo-

*Tliis P.^Inin (If)) wliiili is n Drixficiil Pslam, is so murli iii tlio ninnni'f of i^urrif;
Diirts uf liic l/ook of JoLi, (whicli i.s nut u buok uf lliu Jews, and dues not belong to die

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 325

cal circunistance, and aro introduced by some temporary trifle
which its partizans call a miracle, but of which there is no proof
but the story of it.

The Jewish religion, according to the history of it, began in a
wilde^'ness, and the Christian religion in a stable. The Jewish
books tell us of wonders exhibited upon Mount Sinai. It hap-
pened that nobody lived there to contradict the account. The
Christian books tells us of a star that hung over the stable at the
birth of Jesus. There is no star there now, nor any person liv-
ing that saw it. But all the stars in the heavens bear eternal ev-
idence to the truth of Deism. It did not begin in a stable, nor in
a wilderness. It began every where. The theatre of the universe
is the place of its birth.

As adoration paid to any being but GOD himself is idolatry,
the Christian religion by paying adoration to a man, born of a wo-
man, called Mary, belongs to the idolatrous class of religions,
consequently the consolation drawn from it is delusion. Between
you and your rival in communion ceremonies. Dr. Moore of the
Episcopal church, you have, in order to make yourselves appear
of some importance, reduced General Hamilton's character to that
of a feeble minded man, who, in going out of the world wanted a
passport from a priest. Which of you was first or last applied to
for this purpose is a matter of no consequence.

The man, sir, who puts his trust and confidence in God, that
leads a just and moral life, and endeavours to do good, does not
trouble himself about priests when his hour of departure comes,
nor permit priests to trouble themselves about him. They are, in
general, mischievous beings, where character is concerned ; a
consultation of priests is worse than a consultation of physicians.

A Member of the Deistical Congregation.

ON DEISM AND THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE.

The following reflections, written last winter, were occasioned
by ceiiain expressions in some of the public papers against Deism,
and the Writings of Thomas Paine on that subject.

" Great is Diana of the Ephesians," was the cry of the people
of Ephesus \* and the cry of " our holy religion,'''' has been the cry

l)il>|p) tliat it lias the appearance of having been translated into Helnpw from tlie same
language in wiiicii the iaook of Jol) was originally written, and brought by tlie Jews
froni Clialdea or Persia, when they returned from captivity. Tlia conieniplation of
tlie heavens made a great part of their religious devotion of the Chaldeans and Per-
sians, and tlieir religious festivals were rrgulated by the progress of the .=iin through
the twelve signs of the Zodiac. I5ut the Jew-s knew nothing about the Heavens or
lliey would not have told the foolish stcry of the sun's^tanding s ill upon a hill, and the
niocn in a valley. Wh.at could they want the moon for in the day tiiiiel
• Acts, chap. xix. ver. 23.

28

526 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

of superstition in some instances, and of hypocrisj in othere, from
that (lay to this.

The Brahmin, the follower of Zoroaster, the Jew, the Mahome-
tan, the church of Rome, the Greek church, tlie protestant church,
split into several hundred contradictory sectaries, preaching in
some instances, damnation against eacli other, all cry out, " our
holy reli-gion.^' The Calvinist, who damns children of a span long
to hell to burn fir ever for the glory of God, (and this is called
Christianity) and the universalist^ who preaches that all shall be
saved and none shall be damned, (and this also is called Christi-
anity) boasts alike of their holy religmi arid their Christian faith.
Something more, therefore, is necessary than mere cry and whole-
sale assertion, and that something is TRUTH ; and as inquiry
is the road to truth, he that is opposed to inquiry is not a friend
to truth.

The God of Truth is not the God of fable ; when, therefore,
any book is introduced into the v/orld as the word of God, and
made a ground-work for religion, it ought to be scrutinized more
than other books to see if it bear evidence of being what it is
called. Our reverence to God demands that we do this, lest we
ascribe to God what is not his, and our duty to ourselves de-
mands it lest we take fable for fact, and rest our hope of salvation
on a false foundation. It is not our calling a book holy that
makes it so, any more than our calling a religion holy that en-
titles it to the name. Inquiry, therefore, is necessary in order
to arrive at truth. But inquiry must have some principle to
proceed on, some standard to judge by, superior to human
authority.

When we survey the works of creation, the revolutions of the
planetary system, and the whole ecomomy of what is called na-
ture, which is no other than the laws the Creator has prescrib-
ed to matter, we see unerring order and universal harmony
reigning throughout the whole. No one part contradicts another.
The sun does not run against the moon, nor the moon against
the sun, nor the planets against each other. Every thing
keeps its appointed time and place. This harmony in the works
of God is so obvious, that the farmer of the field, though he
cannot calculate eclipses, is as sensible of it as the philosophi-
cal astronomer. He sees the God of order in every part of
the visible universe.

Here, them, is the standard to which every thing must be
brought tliat pretends to be the work or word of God, and by this
standard it must be judged, independently of any thing and every
thing that man can say or do. His opinion is like a feather in the
Bcale compared with the standard that God himself has set up.

It is, therefore, by thi^ standard, that the Bible, and all other
books protending to be the word of God, (and there are many of
them in the world) must be judged, and not by the opinions of

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 327

men, or the decrees of ecclesiastical councils. These have been
so contradictory, that they have often rejected in one council
what they had voted to be the word of God in another ; and ad-
mitted what had been before rejected. In this state of uncertain-
ty in which we are, and which is rendered still more uncertain by
the numerous contradictory sectaries that have sprung up since
the time of Luther and Calvin, what is man to do ? The an-
swer is easy. Begin at the root — begin with the Bible itself.
Examine it with the utmost strictness. It is our duty so to do.
Compare the parts with each other, and the whole with the har-
monious, magnificent order that reigns throughout the visible
universe, and the result will be, that if the same almighty wisdom
that created the universe, dictated also the Bible, the Bible will
be as harmonious and as magniticent in all its parts, and in the
whole, as the universe is. But if, instead of this, the parts are
found to be discordant, contradicting in one place what is said in
another, (as in '-I Sam. chap. xxiv. ver. 1, and 1 Chron. chap.
xxi. ver. 1. where the same action is ascribed to God in one
book and to Satan in the other,) abounding also in idle and ob-
scene stories, and representing the Almighty as a passionate,
whimsical Being, continually changing his mind, making and un-
making his own works as if he did not know what he was about,
we m.ay take it for certainty that the Creator of the universe is
not the author of such a book, that it is not the word of God, and
that to call it so is to dishonour his name. The Quakers, who
are a people more moral and regular in their conduct than the
people of other sectaries, and generally allowed so to be, do not
hold the Bible to be the word of God. They call it a history of
the timesy and a bad history it is, and also a history of bad men
and of bad actions, and abounding with bad examples.

For several centuries past the dispute has been about doc-
trines. It is now about fact. Is the Bible the word of God, or
is it not ? for until this point is established, no doctrine drawn
from the Bible can aflbrd real consolation to man, and he ought
to be careful he does not mistake delusion^br truth. This is a
case that concerns all men alike.

There has always existed in Europe, and also in America, since
its establishments, a numerous description of men, (I do not here
mean the Quakers) who did not, and do not believe the Bible to
be the word of God. These men never formed themselves into
an established society, but are to be found in all the sectaries
that exist, and are more numerous than any, perhaps equal to all,
and are daily increasing. From Deiis, the Latin word for God,
they have been denominated Deists, that is, believers in God.
It is the most honourable appellation that can be given to man,
because it is derived immediately from the Deity. It is not an
artificial name like episcopalian, presbyterian, &c. but is a name of
sacred signification, and to revile it, is to revile the name of God.

328 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

Since then there is so much doubt and uncertainty about the
Bible, some asserting, and others denying it to be the word of
God, it is best that the whole matter come out. It is necessary,
for the information of the world, that it should. A better time
cannot offer than whilst the government, patronizing no one sect
or opinion in preference to another, protects equally the rights
of all; and certainly every man must spurn the idea of an ec-
clesiastical tyranny, engrossing the rights of the press, and hold-
ing it free only for itself.

Whilst the terrors of the Church, and the tyranny of the
State, hung like a pointed sword over Europe, men were com
manded to believe what the church told them, or go to the stake.
AH inquiries into the authenticity of the Bible were shut out by
the inquisition. We ought, therefore, to suspect that a great
mass of information respecting the Bible, and the introduction of
it into the world, has been suppressed by the united tyranny of
Church and State, for the purpose of keeping people in ignorance,
and which ought to be known.

The Bible has been received by the protestants on the author-
ity of the Church of Rome, and on no other authority. It is she
that has said it is the word of God. We do not admit the au-
thority of that church with respect to its pretended infallibility,
its manufactured miracles, its setting itself up to forgive sins, its
amphibious doctrine of transubstantiation, &c. ; and we ought
to be watchful with respect to any book introduced by her, or
her ecclesiastical councils, and called by her the Word of God;
and the more so, because it was by propagating that belief and
supporting it by fire and faggot, that she kept up her temporal
power. That the belief of the Bible does no good in the world,
may be seen by the irregular lives of those, as well priests as
laymen, who profess to believe it to be the word of God; and the
moral lives of the Quakers who do not. It abounds with too
many ill examp :t to be made a rule for moral life, and were a
man to copy after the lives of some of its most celebrated char-
acters, he would come to the gallows.

Thomas Paine has written to show that the Bible is not the
word of God, that the books it contains were not written by the
persons to whom they are ascribed, that it is an anonymous
book, and that we have no authority for calling it the word of
God, or for saying it was written by inspired penmen, since we
do not know who the writers were. This is the opinion, not only
of Thomas Paine, but of thousands and tens of thousands of
the most respectable characters in the United States and in
Kurope. These men have the same right to their opinions as oth-
ers have to contrary opinions, and the same right to publish them.
Ecclesiastical tyranny is not admissible in the LTnitcd States

With respect to morality, the writings of Thomas Paine are
remarkable for purity and benevolence; and though he often

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 329

enlivens them with touches of wit and humour, he never loses
sight of the real solemnity of his subject. No man's morals,
either with respect to his Maker, himself, or his neighbour, can
suffer by the writings of Thomas Paine.

It is now too late to abuse Deism, especially in a country
where the press is free, or where free presses can be established.
It IS a religion that has God for its patron and derives its name
from him. The thoughtful mind of man, wearied with the
endless contentions of sectaries against sectaries, doctrines
against doctrines, and priests against priests, finds its repose at
last in the contemplative belief and worship of one God and the
practice of morality, for as Pope wisely says,

" He can't be wrong, whose Hfe is in the right."

OF THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

Jiddresscd to the believers in the book called the Scriptures.

The New Testament contains twenty-seven books, of which
four are called Gospels ; one called the Acts of the Apostles ;
fourteen called Epistles of Paul ; one of James ; two of Peter ;
three of John ; one of Jude ; and one called the Revelation.

Nonc'of those books have the appearance of being written by
the persons whose names they bear, neither do we know who
the authors were. They come to us on no other authority than
the church of Rome, which the Protestant Priests, especially
those of New England, called the JVfiore of Babylon. This
church appointed sundry councils to be held, to compose creeds
for the people, and to regulate church affairs. Two of the
principal of these Councils were that of Nice, and of Laodocia,
(names of the places where the councils were held) about three
hundred and fifty years after the time that Jesus is said to have
lived. Before this time there was no such book as the New
Testament. But the church could not well go on without hav-
ing something to show, as the Persians showed the Zendavista,
revealed, they say, by God to Zoroaster ; the Bramins of India,
the Shaster, revealed, they say, by God to Bruma, and given to
him out of a dusky cloud ; the Jews, the books they call the
Law of Moses, given they say also out of a cloud on Mount
Sinai ; the church .set about forming a code for itself out of
such materials as it could find or pick up. But where they got
those materials, in what language they were written, or whose

28*

330 • MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

hand-writing they were, or whether they were originals or copies,
or on what, authority they stood, we know nothieg of, nor does
the New Testament tell us. The church was resolved to have
a New Testament, and as after the lapse of more than three
hundred years, no hand-writing could be proved or disproved,
the church, who like former impostors, had then gotten posses-
sion of the state, had every thing its own way. It invented
creeds, such as that called the Apostle's Creed, the JVicean
Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and out of the loads of rubbish
that were presented, it voted four to be Gospels, and others to be
Epistles, as we now find them arranged.

Of those called Gospels above forty were presented, each pre-
tending to be genuine. Four only were voted in, and entitled,
The Gospel according to St. Matthew — the Gospel according to
St. Mark — the Gospel according to St. Luke — the Gospel accord'
ing to St. John.

This word according shows that those books have not been
written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but according to
some accounts or traditions, picked up concerning them. The
word according means agreeing with, and necessarily includes the
idea of two things, or two persons. We cannot say, The Gos-
pel wrillen by Mattheio according to Matthew ; but we might say,
the Gospel of some other person, according to what was report-
ed to have been the opinion of Matthew. Now we do not know
who those other persons were, nor whether what they wrote ac-
corded with any thing that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John might
have said. There is too little evidence, and too much contriv-
ance, about those bookf., to merit credit.

The next book after those called Gospels, is that called the
Acts of the Apostles. This book is anonymous ; neither do the
Councils that compiled or contrived the New Testament tell us
how they came by it. The church, to supply this defect, say it
was written by Luke, which shows that the church and its priests
have not compared that called the Gospel accordmg to St. Luke,
and the Acts together, for the two contradict each other. The
book of Luke, chap. 24, makes Jesus ascend into heaven the
very same day that it makes him rise from the grave. The book
of Acts, chap. i. v. 3, says, that he remained on the earth forty
days after his crucifixion. There is no believing what either of
them says.

The next to the book of Acts is that entitled, "The Epistle
of Paul the Apostle* to the Romans." This is not an epistle,
or letter, written by Paul or signed by him. It is an epistle, or

• Aocordin^ to the criterion of the cliurrh, Paul was not an apostle : that appella-
tion beinfj given onlv to those called the twelve. Two sailors belonging to a man of
war, got into a (iispule upon this point, whelhrr Paul was an apostle or not, anil they
agreed to refer it to the Boatswain, who decided very cayionirathj that Paid was at)
acting apostle but not rated

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 331

letter, written by a person who signs himself Tertius, and sent,
as it is said at the end, by a servant woman called Phebe. The
last chapter, v. 22, says, " I Tertius, who wrote this Epistle, sar
lute you." Who Tertius or Phebe were, we know nothing of.
The epistle is not dated. The whole of it is written in the first
person, and that person is Tertius, not Paul. But it suited the
church to ascribe it to Paul. There is nothing in it that is in-
teresting, except it be to contending and wrangling sectaries. —
The stupid metaphor of the potter and the clay is in the 9th
chapter.

The next book is ertitled, "The First Epistle of Paul the
Apostle, to the Corinthians." This, like the former, is not an
epistle written by Paul, nor signed by him. The conclusion of
the epistle says, " Tiie first epistle to the Corinthians was writ-
ten from Philippi, by Stephenas and Fortunatus and Achiacus and
Timotheus." The second epistle entitled, "The Second Epis-
tle of Paul the Apostle, to the Corinthians," is in the same case
with the first. The conclusion of it says, " It was written from
Philippi, a city of JNIacedonia, by Titus and Lucas."

A question may arise upon these cases, which is, are these
persons the writers of the epistles originally, or are they the
writers and attestors of copies sent to the councils who compiled
the code or canon of the New Testament .-* If the epistles had
been dated, this question could be decided ; but in either of the
cases the evidences of Paul's hand writing and of their being
written by him is wanting, and therefore there is no authority for
calUng them epistles of Paul. We know not whose epistles they
were, nor whether they are genuine or forged.

The next is entitled, " The Epistle of Paul the Apostle, to
the Galatians." It contains six short chapters. But short as the
epistle is, it does not carry the appearance of being the work or
composition of one person. The fifth chapter, ver. 2, says, " If
ye be circumcised, Christ shall avail you nothing." It does not
say circumcision shall profit you nothing, but Christ shall profit
you nothing. Yet in the sixth chap. v. 15, it says, " For in
Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncir-
cumcision, but a new creature." These are not reconcileable
passages, nor can contrivance make them so. The conclusion
of the epistle says, it was written Irom Rome, but it is not dated,
nor is there any signature to it, neither do the compilers of the
New Testament say how they came by it. AVe are in the dark
upon all these matters.

The next is entitled, " the Epistle of Paul the Apostle, to the
Ephesians." Paul is not the writer. The conclusion of it says,
" Written from Rome unto the Ephesians by Tychicus."

The next is entitled, "the Epistle of Paul the Apostle, to the
Philippians." Paul is not the writer. The conclusion of it says,
" It w as written to the Philippians from Rome by Epaphroditus."

»?3^ MISCELLANEOUS PIECES,

It is not dated. Query, were those men who wrote and signed
those epistles Journeymen Apostles, who undertook to write ia
Paul's name, as Paul is said to have preached in Christ's name?"
The next is entitled, " the Epistle of Paul the Apostle, to the
Colossians." Paul is not the writer. Doctor Luke is spoken
of in this Epistle as sending his compliments. " Luke, the be-
loved physician and Demas greet you." Chap. iv. v. 14. It
does not say a word about his writing any Gospel. The conclu-
sion of the Epistle says, " Written from Rome to the Colossians,
by Tychicus and Onesimus."

The next is entitled " the first and the second Epistles of Paul
the Apostle, to the Thessalonians." Either the writer of these
Epistles was a visionary enthusiast, or a direct impostor, for he
tells the Thessalonians, and, he says, he tells them by the word
of the Lord, that the world will be at an end in his and their
time; and after telling them that those who are already dead
shall rise, he adds, chapter 4, v. 17, " Then we which are alive
and remain shall be caught up with them into the clouds to meet
tlie Lord in the air, and so shall we be ever with the I^ord."
Such detected lies as these, ought to fill priests with confusion,
when they preach such books to be the word of God. These
two Epistles are said, in the conclusion of them, to be written
from Athens. They are without date or signatures.

The next four Epistles are private letters. Two of them are
to Timothy, one to Titus, and one to Philemon. Who they were
nobody knows.

The first to Timothy is said to be written from Laodocea. It
is without date or signature. The second to Timothy is said to
be written from Rome, and is without date or signature. The
Epistle to Titus is said to be written from Nicopolis in Macedo-
nia. It is without date or signature. The Epistle to Philemon
is said to be written from Rome by Onesimus. It is without
date.

The last Epistle ascribed to Paul is entitled, " The Epistle of
Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews," and is said in the conclusion
to be written from Italy, by Timotliy. This Timothy (according
to the conclusion of the Epistle called the second Epistle of
Paul to Timothy) was bishop of the church of the Ephcsians,
and consequently this is not an Epistle of Paul.

On wliat slender cob-wob evidence do the priests and profes-
sors of the Christian religion hang thoir faith! The same degree
of hearsay evidence, and tliat at tliird and fourth hand, would
not in a court of Justice, give a man title to a cottage, and yet
the priests of this profession presumptuously promise their de-
luded followers the kin;i(lom of Heaven. A little reflection
would teach men that those books are not to be trusted to;
that so far from there being any proof they are the word of God,
it is unknown who the writers of them were, or at what time

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 333

they were written, within three hundred years after the reputed
authors are said to have Hved. It is not the interest of priests,
who get their living by them, to examine into the insufficiency
of the evidence upon which those books were received by the
popish councils who compiled the New Testament.

The cry of the priests, that the Church is in danger, is the cry
of men who do not understand the interest of their own craft,
for instead of exciting alarms and apprehensions for its safety, as
they expect, it excites suspicion that the foundation is not sound,
and that it is necessary to take down and build it on a surer
foundation. Nobody fears for the safety of a mountain, but
a hillock of sand may be washed away! Blow then, O ye
priests, " the Trumpet in Zion," for the Hillock is in danger.

DETECTOR— P.

COMMUNICATION.

The church tells us that the books of the Old and New Testa-
ment are divine revelation, and without this revelation we could
not have true ideas of God.

The Deist, on the contrary, say, that those books are not divine
revelation, and that were it not for the light of reason, and the re-
ligion of Deism, those books, instead of teaching us true ideas of
God, would teach us not only false but blasphemous ideas of him.
Deism teaches us that God is a God of truth and justice. Does
the Bible teach the same doctrine? It does not.

The Bible says, (Jeremiah, chap. 20, verses 5, 7,) that God is a
deceiver. " O Lord (says Jeremiah) thou hast deceived me, amd
I was deceived. Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed."
Jeremiah not only upbraids God with deceiving him, but in
chap. 4, verse 9, he upbraids God with deceiving the people of
Jerusalem. "Ah! Lord God, (says he,) surely thou hast greatly
deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ye shall have peace,
whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul."

In chap. 15, verse 8, the Bible becomes more impudent, and
calls God in plain language, a liar. " Wilt thou, (says Jeremiah
to God,) be altogether unto me as a liar and as waters that fail."
Ezekiel, chap. 14, verse 9, makes God to say — " If the prophet
be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord hath deceived
that 'prophet.''^ All this is downright blasphemy.

The prophet Micaiah, as he is called, 2 Chron. chap. 18, verse
18, tells another blasphemous story of God. — ' ' I saw, says he, the
Lord sitting on his throne, and all the hosts of heaven standing on
his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, who shall en-
tice Ahab, king of Israel, to go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?
And one spoke after this manner, and another after that manner

S34 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

Then there came out a spirit (Micaiah does not tell us where he
came from) and stood before the Lord, (what an impudent fellow
this spirit was,) and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said
unto him, wherewith? and he said, I will go out and be a lying
spirit in the mouth o^all his prophets. And the Lord said tliou
shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail; go out and do even so.
We often hear of a gang of thieves plotting to rob and murder
a man, and laying a plan to entice him out that they may execute
their design, and we always feel shocked at the wickedness of
sucli wretches ; but what must we think of a book that des-
cribes the Almighty acting in the same manner, and laying plans
in heaven to entrap and ruin mankind. Our ideas of his justice
and goodness forbid us to believe such stories, and, therefore, we
say that a lying spirit has been in the mouth of the writers of the
books of the Bible T. P.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PROSPECT.

I.v addition to the judicious remarks in your 12th number, on
the absurd story of Noah's flood, in the 7th chapter of Genesis,
I send vou the following :

The "2d verse makes God to say unto Noah, " Of every clean
beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female,
and of every beast that are not clean, by two, the male and his
female."

Now, there was no such thing as beasts clean and unclean in
the timo of Noah. Neither were there any such people as Jews
or Israelites at that time, to whom that distinction was a law.
The law, called the law of Moses, by which a distinction is made,
beasts clean and unclean, was not until several hundred years
after the time that Noah is said to have lived. The story, there-
fore, detects itself, because the inventor forgot himself, by making
God make use of an expression that could not be used at the
time. The blunder is of the same kind, as if a man in telling a
story about America, a hundred years ago, should quote an ex-
pression from Mr. Jefferson's inaugural speech, as if spoken by
liim at that time.

jMy opinion of this story is the same as what a man once said
to another, who asked him in a drawling tone of voice, " Do you
believe the account about No-ah ?" The other replied in the
sanie tone of voice, a/t-nw. T. P.

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 335

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGEJNCE.*

The following publication, which has appeared in several news-
papers in different parts of tiie United States, shows in the
most striking manner, the character and effects of religious fa-
naticism, and to what extravagant lengths it will carry its un-
ruly and destructive operations. We give it a place in the
Prospect, because wr think the perusal of it will be gratifying
to our subscribers ; and, because, by exposing the true charac-
ter of such frantic zeal, we hope to produce some influence
upon the reason of man, and induce him to rise superior to
such dreadful illusions. The judicious remarks at the end of
this account were communicated to us by a very intelligent
and faithful friend to the cause of Deism.

Extract from a Letter of the Rev. George Scott, of Mill Creekj
Washington County, Pennstjlvania, to Col. William M'^FarreUy
of Mount Bethel, JVorthampton County, P. dated JSovember 3,
1802.

My Dear Friend,

We have wonderful times here. God has been pleased to
visit this barren corner with abundance of his grace. The work
began in a neighbouring congregation, at a sacramental occa-
sion, about the last of September. It did not make its appear-
ance in my congregation till the first Tuesday of October. Af-
ter society in the night, there appeared an evident stir among
the young people, but nothing of the appearance of what appear-
ed afterwards. On Saturday evening following, we had society,
but it was dull throughout. On Sabbath-day one cried out, but
nothing else extraordinary appeared. — That evening I went part
of the way to the Raccoon congregation, when the sacrament of
the supper was administered ; but on Monday morning a very-
strong impression of duty constrained me to return to my con-
gregation in the Flats, when the work was begun. We met in the
afternoon at the meeting-house, where we had a warm society.
In the evening we removed to a neighbouring house, where wc
continued in society till midnight ; numbers were falling all the

*It becomes necessary to insert Mr. Scott's letter, for the due understanding of the
comments made upon it, by Mr. Paine. It has also in itself much interest, as exliib-
iling a true picture of the awful condition in which priestcraft has involved human na-
ture, by inculcating " the doctrines of our fallen state by nature, and the way of re-
covering through Clirist." A more childish and besotted dogma, I will venture to
say, was never taught in the most barbarous nation that ever existed in the world.

Editor.

336 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

time of the society. — After the people were dismissed, a consid-
erable number staid and sang hymns, till perhaps two o'clock in
the morninfT, when the work began to the astonishment of all.
Only five or six were left able to take care of the rest, to the
number perhaps of near forty. — They fell in all directions, on ben-
ches, on beds, and on the floor. Next mormiig the people began
to flock in from all quarters. One girl came early in the morn-
ing, but did not get within one hundred yards of the house, be-
fore she fell powerless, and was carried in. We could not leave
the house, and, therefore, continued society all that day and all
that night, and on Weridesday morning, I was obliged to leave
a number of them on the spot. On Th'irsday evening we met
again, when the work was amazing ; about twenty persons lay
to all appearance dead for near two and a half hours, and a great
number cried out with sore distress. — Friday, I preached at Mill
Creek. Here nothing appeared more than an unusual solemnity.
That evening we had society, where great numbers were brought
under conviction, but none fell. On Sabbath-day I preached at
Mill Creek. This day and evening was a very solemn time, but
none fell. On Monday I went to attend presbytery, but return-
ed on Thursday evening to the Flats, where society was appoint-
ed, when numbers were struck down. On Saturday evening
we had society, and a very solemn time — about a dozen persons
lay dead three and a half hours by the watch. On Sabbath a
number fell, and we were obliged to continue all night in society,
as we had done every evening we had met before. On Monday,
a Mr. Hughes preached at Mill Creek, but nothing extraordinary
appeared, only a great deal of falling. We concluded to divide
that evening into two societies, in order to accommodate the peo-
ple. Mr. H. attended the one and I the other. Nothing strange
appeared where Mr. H. attended ; but where I attended, God
was present in the most wonderful manner. I believe there was
not one present but was more or less affected. A considerable
number fell powerless, and two or three, after laying some time,
recovered with joy, and spoke near half an hour. One, es-
pecially, declared in a surprising manner the wonderful view she
had of the person, character, and offices of Christ, with such ac-
curacy of language, that I was astonished to hear it. Surely
this must be the work of God ! On Thursday evening we had
a lively society, but not much falling down. On Saturday, we
all went to the Cross Roads, and attended a sacrament. Here
were, perhaps, about 4000 j>oople collected. The weather was
uncomfortable ; on the Sabbath-day it rained, and on Monday it
snowed. We had thirteen ministers present. The exercises
began on Saturday, and continued on night and day with little or
no intermission. Great numbers fell ; to speak within bounds,
there were upwards of 150 down at one time, and some of them
continued three or fours with but little aj)pearancc of life. Num-

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES 337

bers came to, rejoicing, while others were deeply 'distressed. —
The scene was wonderful ; the cries of the distressed, and the
agonizing groans, gave some faint representation of the awful
cries and the bitter screams, which will, no doubt, be extorted
from the damned in hell. But what is to me the most surprising,
of those who have been subjects among my people with whom I
have conversed, but three had any terrors of hell during their
exercise. The principal cry is, O how long have I rejected
Christ ! 0 how often have I embrued my hands in his precious
blood ! 0 how often have I waded through his precious blood by
stifling conviction ! O this dreadful hard heart ! 0 what a dread-
ful monster sin is ! It was my sin that nailed Jesus to the
cross, &c.

The preaching is various ; some thunder the terrors of the law
— others preach the mild invitation of the gospel. For my part,
since the work began, I have confined myself chiefly to the doctrines
of our fallen state by nature, and the way of ("recovery through
Christ ; opening the way of salvation : showing how God can
be just and yet be the justifier of them that believe, and also the
nature of true faith and repentance ; pointing out the difference
between true and false religion, and urging the invitations of the
gospel in the most engaging manner that I am master of, without
any strokes of terror. The convictions and cries appear to be,
perhaps, nearly equal under all these different modes of preach-
ing, but it appears rather most, when we preach on the fulness
and freeness of salvation.

REMAllKS BY MR. PAINE.

In the fifth chapter of Mark, we read a strange story of the
Devil getting into swine after he had been turned out of a man,
and as the freaks of the Devil in that story and the tumble-down
descriptions in this are very much alike ; the two stories ought to
go together.

"And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the
country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the
ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an
unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs ; and no
man could bind him, no, not with chains : because that he had
been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been
plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces ; neither
could any man tame him. And always night and day, he was in
the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with
stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off*, he ran and worshipped
29

338 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, what have I to do with
thee, Jesus, thou son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God,
that thou torment me not. (For he said unto him, come out of
the'man, tJiou unclean spirit.) And he asked him, what is thy
name? and he answered, saying, my name is Legion : for we are
many. And he besought him much that he would not send them
away out of the country. Now there was there, nigh unto the
mountains, a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils be-
sought him, saying, send us into the swine, that we may enter in-
to them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the un-
clean spirits went out, and entered into the swine ; and the herd
ran down a violently steep place into the sea, (they were about
two thousand,) and were choked in the sea."

The force of the imagination is capable of producing stranore ef-
fects.— When animal magnetism began in France, which was
while Doctor Franklin was minister to that country, the wonder-
ful accounts given of the wonderful effects it produced on the
persons who were under the operation, exceeded any thing related
in the foregoing letter from Washington County. They^tumbled
down, fell into trances, roared and rolled about like persons sup-
posed to be bewitched. The government, in order to ascertain
the fact, or detect the imposition, appointed a committee of physi-
cians to inquire into the case, and Doctor Franklin was request-
ed to accompany them, which he did.

The committee went to the operator's house, and the persona
on whom an operation was to be performed were assembled.
They were placed in the position in which they had been when
under former operations, and hlind-foldcd. In a little time they
began to show signs of agitation, and in the space of about two
hours they went through all the frantic airs they had shown be-
fore ; but the case was, that no operation was performing upon
them, neither was the operator in the room, for he had been order-
ed out of it by the physicians ; but as the persons did not know
tliis, they supposed him present and operating upon them. It
was the effect of imagination only. Doctor Franklin, in relating
this account to the writer of this article, said, that he thought the
government might as well have let it gone on, for that as imagin-
ation sometimes produced disorders, it might also cure some. It
is fortunate, however, that this falling down and crying out scene'did
not happen in New England a century ago, for if it had the
preachers would have been hung for witchcraft, and in more an-
cient times the poor falling down folks would have been supposed
to be possessed of a devil, like the man in Mark, among the
tombs. The progress that reason and Deism make in the world,
lessen the force ofsuperstition, and abate the spirit of persecution.

END OF THE THEOLOGICAL WORKS.

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 339

THE STRANGE STORY OP

KORAH, DATHAN, AND ABIRAM

lumbers, chap. xvi. accounted for

Old ballads sing of Chevey-Chace,
Beneath whose rueful shade,

Full many a valiant man was slain,
And manv a widow made

But I will tell of one much worse
That happ'd in days of yore ;

All in the barren wilderness,
Beside the Jordan shore.

Where Moses led the children forth,

Call'd chosen tribes of God,
And fed them forty years with quails,

And ruled them with a rod.

A dreadful fray once rose among
These self-named tribes of I am ;

Where Korah fell, and by his side
Fell Dathan and Abiram.

An earthquake swallowed thousands up,
And fire came down like stones.

Which slew their sons and daughters all,
Their wives and little ones.

'Twas all about old Aaron's tvthes
This murdering quarrel rose ;

For tythes are worldly things of old,
That lead from words to blows.

A Jew of Venice has explained,
In the language of his nation.

The manner how this fray begMi,
Of which here is translation.

There v/as a widow old and poor,
Who scarce herself could keep ;

Her stock of goods was very smaU
Her flocks one single sheep.

340 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

And when her time of shearing came,
She counted much her gains ;

For now, said she, I shall be blest
With plenty for my pains.

When Aaron h-eard the sheep was shear'd

And gave a good increase.
He straightway sent his tything man

And took away the fleece.

At this the weeping widow wen.

To Korah to complain,
And Korah he to Aaron went

In order to exolain.

But Aaron said in such a case,
There can be no forbearing,

The lavr oi-dains that thou shalt give
The first fleece of thy shearing.

When lambing time was come about,
This sheep became a dam ;

And bless'd the widow,s mournful heart.
By bringing forth a lamb.

vVhen Aaron heard the sheep had young,

He staid till it was grown,
Then he sent his tything man,

And took it for his own.

Again the weeping widow went

To Korah with her grief,
But Aaron said, in such a case.

There could be no relief.

For in the holy law tis writ,

Tliat whilst thou keep'st the stock

Thou shalt present unto the Lord '
The firstling of thy flock.

The widow then in deep distress.

And having nought to eat,
Against her will she killed the sheep.

To feed uoon the meat.

When Aaron heard the sheep was killeo
He sent and took a limb ; '

Which by the holy law he said
Pertained unto him ;

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 341

For in the holy law 'tis writ,

That when thou kill'st a beast,
Thou shalt a shoulder and a breast

Present unto the priest.

The widow then worn out with grief.

Sat down to mourn and weep ;
And in a fit of passion said,

The devil take the sheep.

Then Aaron took the whole away,

And said the laws record,
That all and each devoted thing

Belongs unto the Lord.

The widow went among her kin.

The tribes of Israel rose ;
And all the widows, young and old,

Pull'd Aaron by the nose.

But Aaron called an earthquake up,

And fire from out the sky ;
And all the consolation is —

The Bible tells a lie.

THE TALE OF THE MONK AND JEW,

VERSIFIED.

An unbelieving Jew one day
Was skating o'er the icy way,
Which being brittle let him in.
Just deep enough to catch his chin ;
And in that woful plight he hung.
With only power to move his tongue.

A brother skater near at hand,
A Papist, born in foreign land,
With hasty strokes directly flew
To save poor. Mordecai the Jew —
But first, quoth he, I must enjoin
That you renounce your faith for mine ;
There's no entreaties else will do,
'Tis heresy to help a Jew— — —
29*

342 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES

" Forswear mine fait ! No ! Cot forbid
Dat would be fery base indeed,
Come never mind such tings as deeze,
Tink, link, how fcry hard it freeze.
More coot you do, more coot you be,
Vat signifies your fait to me.
Come tink agen, how cold and vet,
And help me out von little bit."

By holy mass, 'tis hard, I own.
To see a man both hang and drown,
And can't relieve him from his plight
Because he is an Israelite ;
The church refuses all assistance.
Beyond a certain pale and distance ;
And all the service I can lend.
Is praying for your soul, my ft-iend.

" Pray for mine soul, ha! ha! you make me laugh,
You petter help me out py half :
Mine soul I farrant vill take care,
To pray for nown self, my tear ;
So tink a little now for me,
'Tis I am in do hole, not she."

The church forbids it, friend, and saith
That all shall die who have no faith.
" Veil ! if I must pelieve, I must,
But help me out von litttle first.''

No, not an inch without Amen,
That seals the whole — " Veil, hear me den
I here renounce for coot and all,
De race of Jews both great and small ;
'Tis the varst trade peneath the sun.
Or varst religion ; dat's all von.
Dey cheat, and get deir living py't,
And lie, and swear de lie is right.
I'll CO to mass as soon as ever
I get to toder side de river.
So help me out, dow Christian friend,
Dat I may do as I inlend.^'*

Perhaps you do intend to cheat,
If once you get upon your feet.

" No, no, I do intend to be
A Christicm, such a one as dee."
For, thought the Jew, he is as much
A Christian man as I am such.

The bigot Papist joyful hearted
To hear the heretic converted,
Replied to the desigmn<^ Jew,
This was a happy fall for you :

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 343

You'd better die a Christian now,
"For if you live you'll break your vow.
Then said no more, but in a trice
Popp'd Mordecai beneath the ice.

SO]VG.

THE FOURTH OF JULY.

Tune — " Rule Bnttannia "

Hail ! great Republic of the world,

The rising empire of the west ;

Where fam'd Columbus' mighty mind inspired,

Gave tortured Europe scenes of rest !

CHORUS.

Be thou for ever great, for ever great and free,
The land of love and liberty.

Beneath thy spreading mantle vine,
Besides thy flow'ry groves and springs.
And on thy lofty, thy lofty mountains' brow.
May all thy sons and fair ones sing,

Be thou for ever great, &c.

From thee may hated Discord fly,

With all her dark and dreary train ;

And whilst thy mighty, thy mighty waters roll.

May heart endearing concord reign.

Be thou for ever great, &c.

Far as the vast Atlantic pours

Its loaded waves to human sight.

There may thy starry, thy starry standard shine,

The constellation of thy rights.

Be thou for ever great, 8tc.

Let laureats sing their birth-day odes.
Or how that death, like thunders, hurl'd ;
*Tis ours the charter, the charter ours alone
To sing the birth-day of a world.

Be thou for ever great, &c.

344 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES

May ages, as they rise, proclaim

The glories of thy natal day ;

And restless Europe, from thy example learn

To live, to rule, and to obey.

Be thou for ever great, Stc.

Mr. Fame corresponded with a lady, and dated his letters from
•<The Castle in Air," while she addressed hers from "The Little
Corner of the World." For reasons which he knew not, their in-
tercourse was suddenly suspended, and for some time he believed
his fair friend in obscurity and distress. Many years afterwards,
however, he met her unexpectedly at Paris in the most affluent
circumstances, and married to Sir Robert Smith. The following
is a copy of one of these poetical effusions.

FROM THE CASTLE IN AIR,

TO

THE LITTLE CORNER OF THE WORLD.

In the region of clouds where the whirlwinds arise,

My castle of fancy was built :
The turrets reflected the blue of the skies,

And the windows with sun-beams were gilt.

The rainbow sometimes in its beautiful state,

Enamell'd the mansion around,
And the figures that fancy in clouds can create,

Suoplied me with gardens and ground.

I had grottos and fountains, and orange tree groves,

I had all tliat enchantment has told ;
I had sweet shady walks for the gods and their loves,

I had mountains of coral and gold.

But a storm that I felt not, had risen and roll'd,

While rapt in a slumber I lay :
And when I looked out in the morning, behold!

My castle was carried away.

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 345

It pass'd over rivers, and vallies, and groves —

The world it was all in my view —
I thought of my friends, of their fates, of their loves,

And often, full often of you.

At length it came over a beautiful scene,

That nature and silence had made :
The place was but small — but 'twas sweetly serene,

And chequered with sun-shine and shade.

I gaz'd and I envied with painful good will,

And grew tired of my seat in the air :
When all of a sudden my castle stood still,

As if some attraction was there.

Like a lark from the sky it came fluttering down,

And placed me exactly in view —
When who should I meet in this charming retreat

This corner of calmness — but you.

Delighted to find you in honour and ease,

I felt no more sorrow nor pain ; ^

And the wind coming fair, I ascended the breeze
And went back with my castle again.

SONG

ON THE DEATH OF

GENERAL WOLFE.

In a mouldering cave, where the wretched retreat,

Britannia sat wasted with care ;
She mourn'd for her Wolfe, and exclaim'd against fate,

And gave herself up to despair.
The walls of her cell she had sculptured around

With the feats of her favourite son.
And even the dust, as it lay on the ground,

Was engraved with some deeds he had done.

The sire of the gods, from his chrystalline throne,

Beheld the disconsolate dame.
And, moved with her tearri, he sent Mercury down.

And these were the tidings that caine ;

346 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

Britannia, forbear, not a sigh, or a tear,
For thy Wolfe, so deservedly loved ;

Your tears shall be changed into triumphs of joy,
For thy Wolfe is not dead but removed.

The sons- of the east, the proud giants of old.

Have crept from their darksome abodes,
And this is the news, as in heaven it was told,

They were marching to war with the gods.
A council was held in the chambers of Jove,

And this was their final decree,
That Wolfe should be -call'd to the armies above,

And the charge was entrusted to me.

To the plains of Quebec with the orders 1 flew,

He begg'd for a moment's delay ;
He cry'd, " Oh forbear, let me victory hear,

" And then thy commands I'll obey."
With a darksome thick film I encompass'd his eyes,

And bore him away in an urn ;
Lest the fondness he bore to his own native shore

Should induce him again to return.

LIBERTY TREE.

Tune—" The Gods of the Greeks "

In a chariot of light, from the regions of day.

The goddess of liberty came,
Ten thousand celestials directed the way,

And hither conducted the dame.
A fair budding branch from the garden above,

Where millions with millions agree,
She brought in her hand, as a pledge of her love,

And the plant she named Liocrhj tree.

The celestial exotic struck deep in the ground,
Like a native it flourish'd and bore :

The fame of its fruit drew the nations around.
To seek out this peaceable shore

MISCELLANEOUS PIECE* 347

Unmindful of names or distinction they came,

For freemen like brothers agree ;
With one spirit endued, they one friendship pursued,

And their temple was lAberhj tree.

III.
Beneath this fair tree, like the patriarchs of old,

Their bread in contentment they ate,
Unvex'd with the troubles of silver or gold,

The cares of the grand and the great.
With timber and tar they Old England supplied,

And supported her pow'r on the sea :
Her battles they fought, without getting a groat,

For the honour of lAberty tree

IV.

But hear, O ye swains ('tis a tale most profane,)

How all the tyrannical pow'rs.
King, Commons, and Lords, are uniting amain.

To cut down this guardian of ours.
From the east to the west blow the trumpet to arms,

Through the land let the sound of it flee ;
Let the far and the near, all unite with a cheer.

In defence of our Liberty tree.

318 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

EPITAPH

FOR THE TOMB OF

THOMAS PAIJ^TE.

WRITTEN BY A FRIEND.

Here moulders in this dusk abode,
One who to faith no homage show'd :
By moral law his life he tried,
While social duty was his guide,
And pure phiUinthropy the end
Of all he did or could intend.

Prayer he pronounced impiety,
Vain prompter of divine decree :
That oft implores, with erring zeal,
For boons subversive of its weal :
Yet he retained a grateful sense.
Of bountiful omnipotence ;
Nor blushed with reverence to own,
That blessing sprang from God alone.

Thus unappall'd, he sunk to rest.
To rise or lie as heaven thought best :
Yet future hope he did not wave,
Nor mercy for transgressions crave,
The God who gave him life will save.*

•Thomas Paine was born ciThetforJ, in Ennlaml.on llie 29(li day of Janinry,
1737, and died at New-York, on the Stliof June, 1S09, aged a litile over seventy-two
yc.ws and four niontlis.

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 349

THE WILL OF THOMAS PAINE.

The last Will and Testament of me, the subscriber, Thomas
Paine, reposing confidence in my Creator God, and in no other
being, for I know of no other, nor believe in any other. I
Thomas Paine, of the State of New- York, author of the work
entitled Common Sense, written in Philadelphia, in 1775, and
published in that city the beginning of January, 1776, which
awoke America to a declaration of Independence on the fourth
of July following, which was as fast as the work could spread
through such an extensive country ; author also of the several
numbers of the Jimencan Crisis, thirteen in all ; published occa-
sionally during the progress of the revolutionary war — the last
is on the peace ; author also of Rights of Man, parts the first
and second, written and published in London, in 1791 and 1792 ;
author also of a work on religion, Jige of Reason, part the first
and second. N. B. I have a third part by me in manuscript,
and an answer to the bishop of Llandaff"; author also of a work,
lately published, entitled Examination of the Passages in the JVew
Testament, Quoted from the Old, and called Propheciesconcerning
Jesus Chiist, and shewing there are no Prophecies of any such
Person ; author also of several other works not here enumerated,
Dissertation on ihe First Principles of Government, — Decline and
Fall of the English System of Finance — Jlgranan Justice, Sec. &c.
make this my last Will and Testament, that is to say : I give
and bequeath to my executors hereinafter appointed, Walter
Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, thirty shares I hold in the
New- York Phoenix Insurance Company, which cost me fourteen
hundred and seventy dolUars, they are worth now upwards of
fifteen hundred dollars, and all my moveable effects, and also
the money that may be in my trunk or elsewhere at the time of
my decease, paying thereout the expenses of my funeral, m
TRUST as to the said shares, moveables, and money for Margaret
Brazier Bonneville, of Paris, for her own sole and separate use,
and at her own disposal, notwithstanding her coverture. As to
my farm in New Rochelle, I give, devise, and bequeath tlic same
to my said executors, Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Em-
met, and to the survivor of them, his heirs and assigns forever, in
TRUST nevertheless, to sell and dispose thereof, now in the occu-
pation of Andrew A. Dean, beginning at the west end of the
orchard, and running in a line with the land sold to
30

350 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES,

Coles, to the end of the farm, and to apply the money arising
from such sale as hereinafter directed. I give to my friends
Walter Morton, of the New York Phcenix Insurance Company,
and Thomas Addis Emmet, Counsellor at Law, late of Ireland,
two hundred dollars each, and one hundred dollars to Mrs. Palm-
er, widow of Elihu Palmer, late of New-York, to be paid out
of the money arising from said sale ; and I give the remainder
of the money arising from that sale, one half thereof to Clio
Kickman, of High or Upper JVIary-le-Bone Street, London, and
the other half to Nicholas Bonneville of Paris, husband of
Margaret B. Bonneville, atbresaid : and as to the south part of
the said farm, containing upwards of one hundred acres, in trust
to rent out the same or otherwise put it to profit, as shall be
found most adviseable, and to pay the rents and profits thereof to
the said Margaret B. Bonneville, in trust for her children, Ben-
jamin Bonneville, and Thomas Bonneville their education and
maintenance, until they come to the age of twenty-one years, in
order that she may bring them well up, give them good and use-
ful learning, and instruct them in their duty to God, and the
practice of morality, the rent of the lana, or the interest of the
nwney for which it may be sold, as hereinafler mentioned, to be
employed in their education. And after the youngest of the said
children shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one years, in
further trust to convey the same to the said children, share and
share alike, in fee simple. But if it shall be tliought advisable
by my executors and executrix, or the survivor or survivors of
them, at any time before the youngest of the said children shall
come of age, to sell and dispose of the said south side of the said
farm, in that case I hereby authorize and empower my said ex-
ecutors to sell and dispose of the same, and I direct that the
money arising from such sale be put into stock, either in the
United States Bank stock, or New York Phoenix Insurance
Company stock, the interest or dividends thereof to be applied as
is already directed for the education and maintenance ofihe said
children, and the principal to be transferred to the said children,
or the survivor of them, on his or (heir coming of age. I know
not if the society of people called Quakers admit a person to be
buried in their burying ground, who does not belong to their
society, but if they do, or will admit me, I would prefer being
buried there : my father belonged to that profession, and I was
partly brought up in it. But if it is not consistent with their
rules to do this, I desire to be buried on my farm at New Ro-
chelle. The place where I am to be buried, to be a square of
twelve feet, to be enclosed with rows of trees, and a stone or
post and rail fence, with a head stone with my name and age
engraved upon it, author of C nmnon sense. I nominate, consti-
tute and appoint Walter Mo ton, of the New York Phoenix
Insurance Company, and The ofias Addis Emmet, counsellor at

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES 351

law, late of Ireland, and Margaret B. Bonneville, executors and
executrix to this my last Will and Testament, requesting them
the said Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, that they
will give what assistance they conveniently can to Mrs. Bonne-
ville, and see that the children be well brougiit up. Thus plac-
ing confidence in their friendship, I herewith take my final leave
of Xhem and of the world. I have lived an honest and useful
life to mankind ; my time has been spent in doing good, and I
die in perfect composure and resignation to the will of my Crea-
tor God. Dated this eighteenth day of January, in the year one
thousand eight hundred and nine ; and I Imve also signed my
name to the other sheet of this Will in testimony of its being a
part thereof.

THOMAS PAINE. [L. S J

PROFESSION OF FAITH

OF

A SAVOYARD vicar:

EXTRACTED FROM EMILIUS ; OR, A TREATISE OF EDUCATION,
By J. J. ROUSSEAU.

The author introduces the principles and opinions of the Sa-
voyard ^"icar with the following preliminary remarks :

I foresee how much my readers will be surprised to find I have
attended my pupil throughout the whole first age of life, without
once speaking to him of religion. He hardly knows at fifteen
years of age whether or not he has a soul, and perhaps it will
not be time to inform him of it when he is eighteen ; for, if he
learns it too soon, he runs a risk of never knowing it at all.

If I were to design a picture of the most deplorable stupidity,
I would draw a pedant teaching children their catechism : and
•Rcre I resolved to crack the brain of a child, I would oblige him
to explain what he said when he repeated his catechism. It may
be objected, that the greater part of the dogmas of Christianity
being mysterious, to expect the human mind should be capable
of conceiving them, is not so much to expect children should be
men, but that man sho-dd be something more. To this I an-
swer, in the first place, that there are mysteries, which it is not
only impossible for man to comprehend, but also to believe ; and
I do not see what we get by teaching them to children, unless it
be to learn them betimes to tell lies. I will say farther, that be-
fore we admit of mysteries, it is necessary for us to comprehend,
at least, that they are incomprehensible, and children are not
even capable of this. At an age when every thing is mysteri-
ous, there are no such things properly speaking, as mysteries.

Believe in God, and thou shall be saved. This dogma, misun-
derstood, is the principle of sanguinary persecution, and the
cause of all those futile instructions which have given a mortal
blow to human reason, by accustoming it to be satisfied with
words.

To impose an obligation of believing, supposes the possibility
of it. But though a child should proiess the Christian religion,
what can he believe .'' He can believe only what he conceives,
30^

354 PROFESSION OF FAITH OF

and he conceives so little of what is said to him, that if you tell
him directly the contrary, he adopts the latter dogma as readily
as he did the former. The faith of children, and indeed of many
grown persons, is merely an atTair of geography. Are they to
be rewarded in heaven, because they were born at Rome, and
not at Mecca .'' One man is told that Mahomet was a prophet
sent by God, and he accordingly says that Mahomet was a proph-
et sent by God ; the other is told that Mahomet was an impos-
tor, and he also in like manner says Mahomet was an impostor.
Had these two persons only changed places, each would also
have changed his tone, and affirmed what he now denies. Can
we infer from two dispositions so much alike, that one will go to
heaven, and the other to hell ^ When a child says he believes
in God, it is not in God he believes, but in Peter or James, who
tells him there is something which is called God : he believes in
the manner of Euripides, when Jupiter was thus addressed in
one of his tragedies ;*

O Jupiter! ITiough nothing I know of thee but thy name,

All the difference that I see here between me and my readers
is that you think children of seven years of age capacitated to
believe in God, and I do not think them capable of it even at fif-
teen. Whether I am right or wrong in tliis particular, it is not
in itself an article :>£ faith, but only a simple observation in nat-
ural history.

Let us beware of divulging the truth to those who are incapa-
ble of understandinii it : ibr this is the wav to substitute error in
the room of it. It were better to have no idea of God at all,
than to entertain those which are mean, fantastical, injurious, and
unworthy a divine object ; it is a less crime to be ignorant of,
than insult him. I had much rather says ?he amiable Plutarch,
that people sliould believe there is no such person as Plutarch in
the world, than that fliey should say, he is unjust, envious, jeal-
ous, and JO tyrannical as to require of others what he has not
left them power to j)(?rfovn-.

The great evil of tliose j)reposterous images of the Deity,
which we may trace in the minds of children, is, that they remain
indelible during their whole life; and tliat when they aie men,
they have no better conceptions of God than they had when they
were children. Custom and prejudice triumph particularly in
matters of religion. But how shall we, who on all occasions
pretend to shake off* its yoke ; we, who i)ay no regard to the au-
thority of opinion ; who would teacii our pupil nothing but what
he might have learned himself, in any country ; in what religion
shall we educate Emilius .•' To what sect shall wc unite the man

* The tnigoily ')f IVIrnr\li[i|)iis, wliicli at first Ix-j-Tn willi tliii" lino ; but the clamours
of the Athenians obli^jcil Eiiri[)i>li.-s afterwards to aUer it. — Plutarch.

A SAVOYARD VICAR. 355

of nature ? The answer appears to me very simple ; we shall
unite him neither to one nor another ; but plnce him in a proper
situation, and qualify him to make choice of that which the best
use of his reason may induce him to adopt.
Incedo per ignes
Suppoiitos cineri doloso.*
No matter ; my zeal and sincerity have hitherto stood me in the
stead of prudence. I hope these, my securities, will not forsake
me in necessity. Fear not, readers, that I shall take any pre-
cautions unworthy a friend to truth ; I shall never lose sight of
my motto ; but certainly I may be permitted to distrust my own
judgment. Instead of telling you what I think myself, I will
give you the sentiments of a man of greater weight than I am.
I answer for the veracity of the facts which are here related ;
they really happened to the author of the paper I am going to
transcribe. It is your business to see if any useful reflections
may be drawn from it relative to the subject of which it treats. I
neither propose the sentiments of myself or another, as a rule
for you, but only submit them to your examination.

About thirty years ago, a young man, who had forsaken his
own country, and rambled into Italy, found himself reduced to
circumstances of great poverty and distress. He had been bred
a Calvinist ; but, in consequence of his misconduct, and of be-
ing unhappily a fugitive in a foreign country, without money or
friends, he was induced to change his religion for the sake of
subsistence. To this end he procured admittance into an house
established for the reception of proselytes. Here, the instruc-
tions he received concerning some controversial points, excited
doubts he had not before entertained, and brought him first ac-
quainted with the evil of the step he had taken. He was taught
strange dogmas, and was eye-witness to stranger manners ; and
to these he saw himself a destined victim. He now attempted to
make his escape, but was prevented and more closely confined ;
if he complained, he was punished for complaining ; and, lying
at the mercy of his tyrannical oppressors, found himself treated
as a criminal, because he could not without reluctance submit to
be so. He had ber.n doubtless entirely ruined, had it not been
for the good offices of an honest ecclesiastic, who came to the
hospital on some business, and with whom he found an opportu-
nity of a private conference. The good priest was himself poor,
and stood in need of every one's assistance ; the oppressed prose-
lyte, however, stood yet in greater need of him ; the former did not
hesitate, therefore, to favour his escape, at the risk of making
himself a powerful enemy.

This good priest was naturally humane and compassionate, his
own misfortunes had taught him to feel for those of others, nor
had prosperity hardened his heart ; in a word, the maxims of true

* I am treading upon fires hid under deceitM ashes. — Eo.

356 PRorEssioN of faith of

wisdom and conscious virtue, had confirmed the goodness of his
natural disposition. He cordially embraced the young wanderer,
provided him a lodging, and shared with him the slender means
of his own subsistence. Nor was this all ; he went still farther,
giving him both instruction and consolation, in order to teach him
that difficult art of supporting adversity with patience. Could
you believe, ye sons of prejudice ! that a priest, and a priest in
Italy too, could be capable of tliis.

This honest ecclesiastic was a poor Savoyard, who, having in
his younger days incurred the displeasure of his bishop, was
obliged to pass the mountains, in order to seek that provision
which was denied him in his own country. He was neither de-
ficient in literature nor understanding ; his talents, therefore, to-
gether with an engaging appearance, soon procured him protec-
tors, who recommended him to be tutor to a young man of
quality. He preferred poverty, however, to dependance ; and,
being a stranger to the manners and behaviour of the great, ho
remained but a short time in that situation. In quitting this ser-
vice, nevertheless he did not lose the esteem of his patron ; and,
as he behaved with great prudence, and was universally beloved,
he flattered himself he should in time regain the good opinion of
his bishop, and obtain some little benefice in the mountains,
where he hoped to spend the rest of his days. This was the
height of his ambition.

Interested, by a natural propensity, in favour of the young fu-
gitive, he examined very carefully into his character and dispo-
sition. In this examination, he saw that his misfortunes had al-
ready debased his heart ; that the shame and contempt to which
he had been exposed, had depressed his courage, and that his
disappointed pride, converted into indignation, deduced from the
injustice and cruelty of mankind, the depravity of human nature,
and the emptiness of virtue. He had observed religion made
use of as a mask to self-interest, and its worship as a cloak to
hypocrisy. He had seen the terms heaven and hell prostituted
in the subtility of vain disputes ; the joys of the one and pains
of the other being annexed to a mere repetition of words. He
had observed the sublime and jjrimitive idea of the divinity dis-
figured by the fantastical imaginations of men ; and finding that,
in order to believe in God,* it was necessary to .givo up that un-
derstanding he hath bestowed on us, he held in the same disdain
as well the sacred object of our idle reveries, as those reveries
themselves. Without knowing any thing of natural causes, or
giving himself any trouble to think about them, he had plunged
himself into tlic most stupid ignorance, mixed with the most pro-
found contempt tur those who pretended to know more than him-
self

But I will continue to speak no longer in the third person,

* That is, as represented by priestcraft. — Ed.

\

' A SAVOYARD VICAR. 357

which is indeed a superfluous caution ; as you are very sensible,
my dear countrymen, that the unhappy fugitive I have been
speaking of is myself. I conceive myself far enough removed
from the irregularities of my youth to dare to avow them ; and
think the hand which extricated me from them, too well deserv-
ing my gratitude, for rae not to do it honour, at the expence of a
little shame.

The most striking circumstance of all, was to observe, in the
retired life of my worthy master, virtue, without hypocrisy, hu-
manity without weakness, his conversation always honest and
simple, and his conduct ever conformable to his discourse. I
never found him troubling himself whether the persons he assist-
ed went constantly to vespers ; whether they went frequently to
confession, or fasted on certain days of the week : nor did I ever
know him impose on them any of those conditions, without which
a man might perish for want, and have no hopes of relief from
the devout.

Encouraged by these observations, so far was I from affecting,
in his presence, the forward zeal of a new proselyte, that I took
no pains to conceal my thoughts, nor did I ever remark his be-
ing scandalized at this freedom. Hence have I sometimes said
to myself. He certainly overlooks my indifference for the new
mode of worship I have embraced, in consideration of the disre-
gard which he sees I have for that in which I was educated ; as
he finds my indifference is not partial to either. As I lived with
him in the greatest intimacy, I learned every day to respect him
more and more ; and as he had entirely won my heart by so
many acts of kindness, I waited with an impatient curiosity, to
know the principles on which a life and conduct so singular and
uniform could be founded.

It was sometime, however, before this curiosity was satisfied.
Before he would disclose himself to his disciple, he endeavoured
to cultivate those seeds of reason and goodness which ho had
sown in his mind.

In withdrawing the gaudy veil of external appearances, and
presenting to my view the real evils it covered, he taught me to
lament the failings of my fellow-creatures, to sympathize with
their miseries, and to pity instead of envying them. Moved to
compassion for human frailties, from a deep sense of his own, he
saw mankind every where the victims either of their own vices
or of those of others ; he saw the poor groan beneath the yoke
of the rich, and the rich beneath that of their own prepossessions
and prejudices. Believe me, said he, our mistaken notions of
things are so far from concealing our misfortunes from our view,
that they augment those evils, by rendering trifles of importance,
and making us sensible of a thousand wants, which we should
never have known but from our prejudices. Peace of mind con-
sists in a contempt for every thing that may disturb it. The man

353 pnoFEssioN of faith op

who gives himself the greatest concern about life, is he who en-
-joys it least ; and he who aspires the most earnestly after hap-
piness is always the most miserable.

Alas ! cried I, with all the bitterness of discontent, what a de-
plorable picture do you present of human life ! If we may in-
dulge ourselves in nothing, to what purpose are we born ? If
we must despise even happiness itself, who is there can know
what it is to be happy ? I know, replied the good priest, in a
tone and manner that struck me. You ! said I, so little favoured
by fortune ! so poor ! exiled ! persecuted ! can you be happy .''
And if you are, what have you done to purchase happiness ? My
dear child, returned he, I will very readily tell you. As you
have freely confessed to me, I will do the same to you. I will
disclose to you, said he, embracing me, all the sentiments of my
heart. You shall see me, if not such as I really am, at least
such as I think myself to be ; and when you have heard my
whole profession of faith, you will know why I think myself hap-
py ; and, if you think as I do, what you have to do to become
«o likewise. But this profession is not to be made in a moment :
it will require some time to disclose to you my thoughts on the
situation of man, and the real value of human life ; — Ave will take
a proper opportunity for an hour's uninterrupted conversation on
this subject.

As I expressed an earnest desire for such an opportunity, it
was put off only to the next morning. It was in summer-time,
and VV0 rose at break of day ; when, taking me out of town, he
led me to the top of a hill, at the foot of which ran the river Po,
watering the fertile vales. That immense chain of mountains
the Alps, terminated the distant prospect. The rising sun had
cast its orient rays over the gilded plains, and, by projecting the
long shadows of the trees, the houses, and aajacent hills, describ-
ed the most beautiful scene ever mortal eye beheld. One might
have been tempted to think that nature had at this time displayed
all its magnificence, as a subject for our conversation. Here it
was, that, after contemplating for a short time the surrounding
objects in silence, my giside and benefactor thus began.

Expect not either learned declamations or profound arguments;
I am no great philosopher, and I give myself little trouble wheth-
er I ever shall be such or not. But I perceive somcthncs the
glimmering of good-sense, and have always a regard to truth,
1 will not enter into any disputation, or endeavour to refute you ;
but only lay down nay own sentiments ii> simplicity of heart : con-
sult your own, during this exposition ; this is all I require of you.
If I am mistaken, it is undesignedly ; whicli is sufficient to clear
me of all criminal error ; and if ^■ou are in like manner unwitting-
ly deceived, is of little consequence : if I am right, reason i.s
common to I)oth ; we are equally interested in listening to it :
and why should you not thin!; as 1 do.

A SAVOYARD VICAR. 259

I was born a poor peasant, destined by my situation to the
business of husbandry ; it was thought, however, much more ad-
viseable for me to learn to get my bread by the profession of a
priest ; and means were found to give me a proper education.
In this, most certainly, neither my parents nor I consulted what
was really good, true, or useful for me to know ; but only that I
should learn what was necessary to my ordination. I learned,
therefore, what was required of me to learn, I said what was re-
quired of me to say, and accordingly was made a priest.* I was
not long, however, before I perceived too plainly, that, in laying
myself under an obligation to be no longer a man, I had engag-
ed for more than I could possibly perform.

I was in that state of doubt and uncertainty, in which Descar-
tes requires the mind to be involved in order to enable it to in-
vestigate truth. This disposition of mind, however, is too dis-
quieting to last long ; its duration being owing only to vice or
indolence. My heart was not so corrupt as to seek such indul-
gence ; and nothing preserves so well the habit of reflection, as
to be more content with ourselves than with our fortune.

I reflected, therefore, on the unhappy lot of mortals, alw^va
floating on the ocean of human opinions, without compass or rud-
der ; left to the mercy of their tempestuous passions, with no
other guide than an unexperienced pilot ignorant of his course,
as well as whence he came and whither he is going. I said often
to myself; I love the truth ; I seek, yet cannot find it ; let any
one show it me and I will readily embrace it ; Why doth it hide
its charms from an heart formed to adore them ?

I have frequently experienced at times much greater evils ;
and yet no part of my life was ever so constantly disagreeable to
me as that interval of scruples and anxiety. Running perpetual-
ly from one doubt and uncertainty to another, all that I could de-
duce from any long and painful meditation was incertitude, ob-
scurity and contradiction ; as well with regard to my existence
as my duty.

What added further to my perplexity was, that being educated
ni a church whose authority being universally decisive, admits
not of the least doubt ; in rejecting one point, I rejected in a
manner all the rest ; and the impossibility of admitting so many
absurd decisions, set me against those which were not so. In
being told I must believe all, I was prevented from believing
any thing, and I knew not where to stop.

We have no standard with which to measure this immense
machine ; we cannot calculate its various relations ; we neither
know the first cause nor the final effects ; we are ignorant even
of ourselves ; we neither know our own nature nor principle of

* This is the manner in which all priests, or ministers of the gospel, are ni.i.le ; and
when so made, they hecome in the eyes of their followers, pious, holy men, capiible of
"M)laining the whole " mystery of godliness." Ei).

360 A SAVOYARD VICAR.

I

action ; nay, we hardly know whether man be a simple or a com-
pound being ; impenetrable mysteries surround us on every
side ; they extend beyond the region of sense : we imagine our-
selves possessed of understanding to penetrate them, and we
have only imagination. Every one strikes out a way of his own
across this imaginary world ; but no one knows whether it will
lead him to the point he aims at. We are yet desirous to pene-
trate, to know every thing. The only thing we know not, is to
remain ignorant of what it is impossible for us to know. We
had much rather determine at random, and believe the thing
which is not, than confess that none of us is capable of seeing
the thing that is. Being ourselves but a small part of that great
whole, whose limits surpass our most extensive views, and con-
cerning which its Creator leaves us to make our idle conjectures,
we are vain enough to decide what is that whole in itself, and
what we are in relation to it. ,

Taking a retrospect, then, of the several opinions, which had
successively prevailed with me, from my infancy, I found that,
although none of them were so evident as to produce immediate
conviction, they had nevertheless different degress of probabil-
ity, and that my innate sense of truth and falsehood, leaned
more or less to each. On this first observation, proceeding to
compare, impartially and wirhout prejudice, these different opin-
ions with each other, I found that the fij-st and most common,
was also the most simple and most rational ; and that it wanted
nothing more, to secure universal suiFrage, than the circumstance
of having been last proposed.

Th.e love of truth, therefore, being all my philosophy, and my
method of philosophizing the simple and easy rule of common
sense, which dispensed with the vain subtilty of argumentation,
I re-examined, by this rule, all the interesting knowledge I was
possessed of; resolved to admit, as evident, every thing to which
I CQuld not, in the sincerity of my heart, refuse my assent ; to
admit also, as true, all that appeared to have a necessary connec-
tion with the former, and to leave every thing else as uncertain,
without rejecting or admitting it, determined not to trouble my-
self about clearing up any point which did not tend to utility in
practice.

But, after all, who am I .'' What right have I to judge of
these things ? And what is it that determines my conclusions ?
If, subject to the impressions I receive, these are formed in di-
rect consequence of those impressions, I trouble myself to no
purpose in these investigations. It is necessary, therefore, to
ex.nmine myself, to know what instruments are made use of in
such researches, and how far I may confide in their use.

[The vicar here goes into a long distpiisition upon matter,
cause of motion, spirit, freedom of the human will, Sec ; which
is emitted.]

A SAVOYARD VICAR. 361

I have done every thing in my power to arrive at truth ; but
its force is elevated beyond my reach. If my faculties fail me,
in what am I culpable ? It is necessary for truth to stoop to my
capacity.

The good priest spoke with some earuestness : he was moved,
and I was also greatly affected. I amagined myself attending to the
divine Orpheus, singing his hymns, nnd teaching mankind the
worship of the gods. A number of objections, however, to what
he had said suggested themselves ; though I did not urge one,
because they were less solid than perplexing ; and though not
convinced, I was nevertheless persuaded he was in the right.
In prq^portion as he spoke to me from the conviction of his own
conscience, mine confirmed me in the truth of what he said.

The sentiments you have been delivering, said I to him, ap-
pear newer to me in what you profess yourself ignorant of, than
in what you profess to believe. I see in the latter nearly that
theism, or natural religion, which Christians affect to confound
with atheism and impiety, though in fact diametrically opposite.
In the present situation of my mind, I find it difficult to adopt
precisely your opinion, to be as wise as you ; to be at least, as
sincere, however, I will consult my own conscience on these
points. Is it not that internal sentiment which, according to
your example, ought to be my conductor ; and you have your-
self taught me, that, after having imposed silence on it for a long
time, it is not to be awakened again in a moment.

I will treasure up your discourse in my heart, and meditate
thereon. If when I have duly weighed it, I am as much con-
vinced as you, I will trust you as my apostle, and will be your
proselyte till death. Go on, however, to instruct me : you have
only informed me of half what I ought to know. Gite me your
thoughts of revelation, the scriptures, and those mysterious doc-
trines, concerning which I have been in the dark from my infan-
cy, without being able to conceive or believe them, and yet not
knowing how either to admit or reject them.

Yes, my dear child, said he, I will proceed to tell you what I
think farther : I meant not to open to you my heart by halves ;
but the desire which you express to be informed in these partic-
ulars was necessary to authorize me to be totally without reserve.
I have hitherto told you nothing but what I thought might be
useful to you, and in the ti-uth of which I am most firmly per-
suaded. The examination which I am now going to make, is
very different ; presenting to my view nothing but perplexity,
mysteriousness, and obscurity : I enter on it, therefore, with dis-
trust and uncertainty. I almost tremble to determine about any
thing ; and shall rather inform you, therefore, of my doubts than
of my opinions. Were your own sentiments more confirmed, I
should hesitate to acquaint you with mine ; but in your present
sceptical situation, you would be a gainer by thinking as I do.

sJ 1

362 PROFESSION OF FAITH OF

Let my discourse, however, carry with it no greater authority
than of reason ; for I plainly confess myself ignorant, whether
I am in the right or wrong. It is difficult indeed, in all discus-
sions, not to assume sometimes an affirmative tone '. but remem-
ber that all my affirmations, in treating these matters, are only
so many rational doubts. I leave you to investigate the truth of
them ; on my pari, I can only promise to be sincere.

You will find my exposition treat of nothing more than natural
religion ; it is very strange that we should stand in need of any
other ! By what means can I find out such necessity ? In what
respect can I be culpable, for serving God agreeably to the dic-
tates of the understanding he hath given me, — and the sentiments
he hath implanted in my heart ? What purity of morals, — what
system of faith useful to man, — or honorable to the Creator, can
I deduce from any positive doctrines, that I cannot deduce as
well without it, from a good use of my natural faculties ? Let
any one show me what can be added, either for the glory of God,
the good of society, or my own advantage, to the obligations we
are laid under by nature ; let him show me what virtue can be
produced from any new worship, which is not also the conse-
quence of mine. The most sublime ideas of the Deity are in-
culcated by reason alone. Take a view of the works of nature,
listen to the voice within, and then tell me what God hath omit-
ted to say to your sight, your conscience, your understanding ?
Where are the men who can tell us more of him than he thus tells
us of himself? Their revelations only debase the Deity, in as-
cribing to him human passions. So far from giving us enlight-
ened notions of the supreme Being, their particular tenets, in my
opinion, give us the most obscure and confused ideas. To the
inconceivable mysteries by which the Deity is hid from our view,
they add the most absurd contradictions. They serve to make
man proud, persecuting, and cruel : instead of establishing peace
on earth, they bring fire and sword, I ask myself to what good
purpose tends all this, without being able to resolve the question.
Artificial religion presents to my view only tlie wickedness and
miseries of mankind.

I am told, indeed, that revelation is necessary to teach man-
kind the manner in M'hich God would be served ; as a proof of
this, they bring the diversity of whimsical modes of worship
which prevail in the world ; and that without remarking that this
very diversity arises from the whim of adopting revelations. —
Ever since men have taken it into their heads to make the Deity
speak, every people make him speak, in their own way and say
what they like best. Had they listened only to what the Deity
hath said to their hearts, there would have been but one religion
on earth.

It is necessary that the worship of God should be uniform ;
I would have it so. But is this a point so very important, that

A SAVOYARD VICAR. 363

the whole apparatus of divine power was necessary to establish
it ? Let us not confound the ceremonials of religion with reli-
ligion itself. The worship of God demands that of the heart ;
and this when it is sincere, is ever uniform.

Men must entertain very ridiculous notions of the Deity, in-
deed, if they imagine he can interest himself in the gown or cas-
sock of a priest, in the order of words he pronounces, or in the
gestures and genuflections he makes at the altar.

I did not set out at first with these reflections. Hurried on by
the prejudices of education, and that dangerous self-conceit,
which ever elates mankind above their sphere, as I could not
raise my feeble conceptions to the supreme Being, I endeavoured
to debase him to my ideas. Thus I coneected relations infinitely
distant from each other, comparing the incomprehensible nature
of the Deity with my own. I require still farther a more imme-
diate communication with the Divinity, and more particular in-
structions concernincr his will : not content with reducing God
to a similitude with man, I wanted to be farther distinguished by
his favour, and to enjoy supernatural lights : I longed for an ex-
clusive and peculiar privilege of adoration, and that God should
have revealed to me what he had kept secret from others, or
that others should not understand his revelations so well as my-
self.

Looking on the point at which I was arrived, as that whence
all believers set out, in order to reach an enlightened mode of
worship, I regarded natural religion only as the elements of all
religion. I took a survey of that variety of seels which are
scattered over the face of the earth, and who mutually accuSe
each other of falsehood and error : I asked which of them was
in the right ? Every one of them in their turns answered theirs.
I and my partizans only think truly \ all the rest are mistaken.
But how do you knoii' that your sect is in the right ? Because God
hath declared so. And loho tells you God hath declared so ? My
spiritual guide, who knows it well. My pastor tells me to believe
so and so, and accordingly 1 believe it : he assures me that ev-
ery one who says to the contrary, speaks falsely ; and therefore,
I listen to nobody who controverts his doctrine.*

* "All of tliem," says a good, and learned priest, " do in effect assume to tliem-
selves that declaration of the apostle, not of men, neither by man,nor of any oth-
er crmturc, but of God." Gal. i. 1, 12.

'* But if \\c lay aside all flattery and dir^giiise, and speak freely to the point, there
will be found very liule or nothing at the bottom of all these mighty boastings. For,
whatever man may say or tliink to the contrary, it is manifest that all sorts of reli-
gion are handed down and received by human methods. — ^This seems to be sutliciently
plain ; first, from the manner of rclisriou's getting ground in the world ; and that
whether we regard the first general planting of any persuasion, or the method of its
gaining now upon private persons. For wiience is the daily increase of any sect 1
Does not the nation to which we belong, ihe country where we dwell, nay, the town
or the family in which we were born, commonly give us our religion ; we take that
which is the growth of the soil ; and wiiate\er we were born in the midst of, and bred
up to, tliat profession we still keep. We are circumcised or baptized, Jews or Chris*

364 PROFESSION OF FAITH Of

How, thought I, is not the truth every where tne same? Is it
possible that what is true with one person can be false with an-
other? If the method taken by him who is in the right, and by
him who is in the wrong be the same, what merit or demerit hath
the one more than the other? Their choice is the effect of ac-
cident, and to impute it to them is unjust : It is to reward or pun-
ish them for being born in this or that country. To say that the
Deity can judge us in this manner, is the highest impeachment
of his justice.

Now, either all religions are good and agreeable to God, or if
there be one which he dictated to man, and will punish him for
rejecting, he hath certainly distinguished it by manifest signs and
tokens, as the only true one. These signs are common to all
times and places, and are equally obvious to all mankind, to the
young and old, the learned and ignorant, to Europeans, Indians,
Africans and savages. If there be only one religion in the
world that can prevent our suffering eternal damnation, and there
be on any part of the earth a single mortal who is sincere and is
not convinced by its evidence, the God of that religion must be
the most iniquitous and cruel of tyrants. Would we seek the
truth, therefore, in sincerity, we must lay no stress on the place
and circumstance of our birth, nor on the authority of fathers and
teachers ; but appeal to the dictates of reason and conscience
concerning every thing that is taught us in our youth. It is to
no purpose to bid me subject my reason to the truth of things
which it is incapacitated to judge ; the man who would im-
pose on me a falsehood, may bid me do the same : it is necessa-
ry, therefore, I should employ my reason even to know when it
ought to submit.

All the theology I am myself capable of acquiring, by taking
a prospect of the universe, and by the proper use gf my facul-
ties, is confined to what I have laid down above. To know more,
we must have recourse to extraordinary means. These means
cannot depend on the authority of men : for all men being of the
same species with myself, whatever another can by natural
means come to the knowledge of, I can do the same ; and an-
other man is as liable to be deceived as I am : and if I believe,
therefore, what he says, it is not because he says it, but because
he proves it. The testimony of mankind, therefore, is at the

tiang, or Mahometans, before we can be sensible that we are men ; so that religion is
not the generality of people's choice, but tiieir fate ; iiot so much tlieir own act and
de<;(l, as the act of others for and upon them. — Were religion our own free ciioice,
and the result of our own judgment, the life and manners of men could not be at so
vast a distance and ifianifest disagreement from their principles ; nor could they, up-
on every slight and common occasion, act so directly contrary to the whole tenor and
design of their religion." Charron of Jt'isdwn, booh ii. chap. 5. The English
translator observes, that the foregoing passage is taken fiom Dr. Stanhope's transia-
tion of Charron. See the Doctor's excellent note on that passage, vol. 2, page 110.

It is very probable, that tho sincere profession of faith of the virtuous theologias
of Coudom.j was not very different from that of the vicar of Savov.

A SAVOYARD VICAR. 365

bottom of that of my reason, and adds nothing to the natural
means God hath given me for the discovery of the truth.

>Vhat then can even the apostle of truth have to tell me, of
which I am not still to judge t But God himself hath spoken :
listen to the voice of revelation. That indeed, is another thing,
(iod hath spoken 1 This is saying a great deal ; but to whom
hath he spoken ? He hath spoken to man. How comes it then
that I heard nothing of it ? He hath appointed others to teach you
his word. I understand you: there are certain rtien who are to
tell mc. what God hath said. I had much rathfir have heard it
from himself; this, had he so pleased, he could easily have done ;
and I sliould then have run no risk of deception. Will it be
said I am secured from that, by his manifesting the mission of
his messengers by miracle .' Where are those miracles to be
seen ? Are they related only in the books ? Pray, who wrote
these books r — jNIen. — Who were witnesses to these miracles ?
Men. — Always human testimony ! It is always men that tell me
what other men have told them. What a number of these are con-
stantly between me and the Deity ! We are always reduced to
the necessity of examining, comparing and verifying such evi-
dence. O, that Gcvd had deigned to have saved me all this
trouble ! should I have served him with a less willing heart ^

Consider, my friend, in what a terrible discussion I am already
engaged ; what immense erudition I stand in need of, to recUr
back to the earliest antiquity ; to examine, to weigh, to confront
prophecies, revelations, tacts, with all the monuments of faith
that have made their appearance in all the countries of the world ;
to asertain their time, place, authors, and occasions. How great
the critical sagacity which is requisite to enable me to distinguish
between pieces that are suppositions, and those which are authen-
tic ; to compare objections with their replies, translations with
their originals ; to judge of the impartiality of witnesses, of their
good sense, of their capacity ; to know if nothing be suppressed
or added to their testimony, if nothing be changed, transposed or
falsified ; to obviate the contradiction that remain, to judge what
weight we ought to ascribe to the silence of our opponents, in re-
gard to facts alledged against them ; to discover whether such
allegations were known to them ; whether they did not disdain
them too much to make any reply ; whether books were common
enough for ours to reach them ; or if we were honest enough to
let them have a free circulation among us ; and to leave their
strongest objections in full force.

Again, supposing all these monuments ackowledged to be in-
contestible, we must proceed to examine the proofs of the mission
of their authors : it would be necessary for us to be perfectly ac-
quainted with the laws of chance, and the doctrine of probabili-
ties, to judge what prediction could not be accomplished without
a miracle ; to know the genius of the original languages, in or-

31*

366 nvoFEssiox of faith of

der to distinguish what is predictive in these languages, and
what is only figurative. It would be requisite for us to know
what facts are agreeable to the established order of nature and
what are not so ; to be able to say how far an arttul man may
not fascinate the eyes of the simple, and even astonish the most
enlightened spectators ; to know of what kind a miracle should
be, and the authenticity it ought to bear, not only to claim our
belief, but to make it criminal to doubt it ; to comrpare the proofs
of false and true miracles, and discover tlip certain means of dis-
tinguishing them ; and after all to tell why the Deity should
choose, in order to confirm the truth of his word, to make use of
means which themselves require so much confirmation, as if he
took delight in playing upon the credulity of mankind, and had
purposely avoided the direct means to pursuade them.

Suppose that the divine Majesty had really condescended to
make man the organ of promulgating its sacred will ; is it reason-
able, is it just, to require all mankind to obey the voice of such
a minister, without his makina himself known to be such ? Where
is the equity or propriety in furnishing him, for universal cre-
dentials, with only a few particular tokens displayed before a
handful of obscure persons, and of \vhich the rest of mankind
know nothing but by hearsity ? lu every country in the world,
if we should believe all tlie prodigies to be true which the com-
mon people, and the ignorant, alfirm to have seen, every sect
would be in the right, there would be more miraculous events than
natural ones ; and the greatest miracle of all would be to find
that no miracles had happened where fimaticism had been per-
secuted. The supreme Being is best displayed by the fixed and
unalterable order of nature ; if there should happen many ex-
ceptions to such general laws, I should no longer know what to
think ; and, for my own part, I must confess I believe too much
in God to believe so many miracles so little worthy of hiiu.

What if a man should come and harangue us in the following
manner : " I come, ye mortals, to announce to you the will of
the most high ; acknowledge in my voice that of him who sent
me. I command the sun to nmvc backwards, the stars to change
their places, the mountains to disappear, the waves to remain fixed
on high, and the earth to wear a difierent aspect." Who would
not, at the sight of such miracles, immediately attribiite them to
the author of nature .'' JN'ature is not obcdu)nt to imjX)stors ;
their miracles are always performed in the highways, in the
fields, or in apartments where they are displayed before a small
number of spectators, previously disposed to believe every thing
they see. Who is there will venture to detcMniine how many eye
witnesses are necessary to render a miracle worthy of credit ?
If the miracles intended to j)rove the truth of your doctrine,
stand themselves in need of i)roof, of what irse are they ? There
might as well be none performed at all.

A SAVOYARD VICAR. 3G7

The most important examination, after all, remains to be mado
into the truth of the doctrines delivered ; for as those who say
that God is pleased to work these miracles, pretend that the devil
sometimes imitates them, we are not a jot nearer than before,
though such miracles should be ever so well attested. As the
magicians of Pharaoh worked the same miracles, even in the
presence of Moses, as he himself performed by the express com-
mand of God, why might not they, in his absence, from the same
proofs, pretend to the same authority ? Thus after proving the
truth of the doctrine by the miracle, you are reduced to prove
the truth of the miracle by that of the doctrine,* lest the works
of the devil should be mistaken for those of the Lord. What
think you of this alternative .^

The doctrines coming from Gbd, ought to bear the sacred
characters of the divinity ; and should not only clear up those
confused ideas which enlightened reason excites in the mind ;
but should also furnish us with a system of religion and morals,
agreeably to those attributes by which only we form a concep-
tion of his essence. If then they teach us only absurdities, if
they inspire us with sentiments of aversion for our fellow crea-
tures, and fear foi ourselves ; if they describe the Deity as a
vindictive, partial, jealous and angry being ; as a god of war
and battles, always ready to thunder and destroy : always threat-
ening slaughter and revenge, and even boasting of punishing the
innocent, my heart cannot be incited to love such a Deity, and I
shall take care how I give up my natural religion to embrace
such doctrines. Your God is not mine, I should say to profes-
sors of such a religion. A being, who began his dispensations
with partially selecting one people, and proscribing the rest of
mankind, is not the common father of the human race ; a being,
who destines to eternal punishment the greatest part of his crea-
tures, is not the good and merciful God who is pointed out by
my reason.

* This is expressly mentioned in many places in scripture, particularly in Deuter-
onomy, chap. xiii. where it is said, that, if a prophet, teaching the worship of strange
gods, confirm his discourse by signs and wonders, and what he foretells comes really
to pass, so far from paying any regard to his mission, the people should stone him to
death. When the Pagans, therefore, put the apostles to death, for preaehing up to
them the worship of a strange God, proving their divine mission by prophecies and
miracles, I see not what could be objected to them, which they might not with equal
justice have retorted upon us. Now, what is to be done in tjiis case 1 there is but one
step to be taken, to recur to reason, and leave miracles to themselves : better indeed
had it been never to have had recourse to them, nor to have perplexed good sense
witli such a number of subtile distinctions. What do I talk of subtile distinctions in
Christianity ! if there are such, our Saviour was in the wrong surely to promise the
kingdom of heaven to the weak and simple ! how came he to begin hrs fine discourse
on the mount, with blessing the poor in spirit, if it requires so much ingenuity to com-
prehend and believe his doctrines '? when you prove that I ought to subject my reason
to his dictates, it is very well ; but to prove that, you must render them intelligible to
my understanding ; you must adapt your arguments to tlie poverty of my genius, or I
shall not acknowledge you to be the true disciple of your master, or think it is his
doctrmes which you would iiiculcate.

36y PROFESSION OF FAITII OF

With regard to articles of faith, my reason tells me, they
should be clear, perspicuous, and evident. If natural religion
be insufficient, it is owing to the obscurity in which it necessa-
rily leaves those sublime truths it professes to teach ; it is the
business of revelation to exhibit them to the mind in a more clear
and sensible manner ; to adapt them to his understanding, and
to enable him to conceive, in order that he may be capable of
believing them. True faith is assured and confirmed by the
understanding ; the best of all religions is undoubtedly the clear-
est : that which is clouded with mysteries and contradictions, the
worship that is to be taught by preaching, teaches me by that
very circumstance to distrust it. The God whom I adore is not
the God of darkness ; he hath not given me an understanding to
forbid me the use of it. To bid me give up my reason is to
insult the author of it. The minister of truth doth not tyrannise
over my understanding, he enlightens it.

We have set aside all human authority, and without it I can-
not see how one man can convince another, by preaching to hfrn
an unreasonable doctrine. Let us suppose two persons engaged
in a dispute on this head, and see how they will express them-
selves in the language generally made use of on stich occasions.

Dogmatist. — Your reason tells you that the whole is greater
than part ; but I tell you, from God, that a part is greater than
the whole.

Rationalist. — And who are you, that dare to tell me God
contradicts himself > In whom shall I rather believe ? In him
who instructs me, by means of reason, in the knowledge of eter-
nal truths ; or in you who would impose on me, in his name, the
greatest absurdity ?

D. — In me, for my instructions are more positive ; and I wil!
prove to you incontestibly, that he hath sent me.

R. — How ! will you prove that God hath sent you to depose
against himself ? What sort of proofs can you bring to convince
me, is it more certain that God speaks by your mouth than by
the understanding he hath given me .''

D. — The understanding he hath given you ! ridiculous and
contemptible man I you talk as if you were the first infidel who
over was misled by an understanding depraved by sin.

R. — Nor may you, man of God ! be the first knave whose
impudence hath been the only proof he could give of his divine
mission.

D. — How ! can philosophers be thus abusive ?

R. — Sometimes, when saints set them the example.

D — Oh ! but I am authorised to abuse you, I speak on the
part of God Almighty.

R. — It would not be improper, however, to produce your cre-
dentials before you assume your privileges.

A SAVOYARD VICAU, 369

D. — My cicdentials are sufficiently aathenticated. Both hea-
ven and eaitli are witnesses in my favour. Attend, I pray you,
to my arguments.

R. — Arguments ! why you do not surely pretend to any ! to
tell me that my reason is fallacious, is to refute whatever it may
say in your favour. Whoever refuses to abide by the dictates
of reason, ought to be able to convince without making use of
it. For supposing that in the course of your arguments you
convince me, how shall I know whether it be not through the
fallacy of reason, depraved by sin, and I acquiesce in what you
affirm .'' Besides, what proof, what demonstration can you ever
employ more evident than the axiom which destroys it ^ it is full
as credible that a just syllogism should be false, as that a part is
greater than the whoJe.

D. — What a difference ! my proofs admit of no reply ; they
are of a supernatural kind.

R. — Supernatural ! What is the meaning of that term ? I do
not understand it.

D. — Contraventions of the order of nature, prophecies, mira-
cles and prodigies of every kind.

K.- — Prodigies and miracles ! I have never seen any of these
things.

D. — No matter ; others have seen them for you ; we can
bring clouds of witnesses — the testimony of whole nations.

R. — The testimony of what nations ! Is this a proof of the
supernatural kind ?

D. — No. But when it is unanimous, it is incontestible.

R. — There is nothing more incontestible than the dictates of
reason ; nor can the testimony of all mankind prove the truth of
an absurdity. Let us see some of your supernatural proofs
then, as the attestation of men is not so.

D. — Infidel wretch ! It is plain the grace of God doth not
speak to thy understanding.

R. — Whose fault is that ? not mine ; for according to you,
it is necessary to be enlightened by grace to know how to ask for
it. Begin then, and speak to me in its stead.

D. — ^Is not this what I am doing .'' but you will not hear me :
what do you say to prophecies ?

R. — As to prophecies ; I say, in the first place, I have heard
as few of them as i have seen miracles. And in the second, I
say that no prophecy bears any weight with me.

D. — Thou disciple of Satan ! And why have prophecies no
weight with you .''

R. — Because, to give them such weight, requires three things ;
the concurrence of which is impossible. These are, that I should,
in the first place, be a witness to the delivery of the prophecy ;
next, that I should be witness also to the event ; lastly, that it
should be clearly demonstrated to me that such event could not

370 PROFESSION OF FAITH OF

have followed by accident : for though a prophecy were as pre-
cise, clear, and determinate as an axiom of geometry ; yet us the
perspicuity of a prediction, made at random, does not render the
accomplishment of it impossible, that accomplishment, when it
happens, proves nothing in fact concerning the foreknowledge of
him who predicted it.

You see, therefore, to what your pretended supernatural proofs,

your miracles, and your prophecies reduce us ; to the folly

of believing them all on the credit of others, and of submiting
the authority of God, speaking to our reason, to that of man. If
those eternal truths, of which my understanding forms the strong-
est conceptions, can possibly be false, I can have no hope of
ever arriving at certitude ; and so far from being capable of be-
ing assured that you speak to me from God, I cannot even bo
assured of his existence.

You see my child, how many difficulties must be removed be-
fore our disputants can agree ; nor are these all. Among so
many different religions, each of which prescribes and excludes
the other, one only must be true, if indeed there be such a one
among them all. Now, to discover which this is, it is not enough
to examine that one ; it is necessary to examine them all, as we
should not, on any occasion whatever, condemn without a hear-
ing.* It is necessary to compare objections with proofs, and to
know what each objects to in the rest, as well as what the others
have to offer in their defence. The more clearly any sentiment
or opinion appears demonstrated, the more narrowly it behoves
us to inquire, what are the reasons which prevent its opponents
from subscribing to it. We must be very simple, indeed, to
think an attention to the theologists of our own j)arty sufficient
to instruct us in what our adversaries have to offer. Where shall
we find divines, of any persuasion, perfectly candid and honest ?
Do they not all begin to weaken the arguments of tiieir opponents,
before they proceed to refute them ? Each is the oracle of his
party, and makes a great figure among iiii-j partizans, with such
proofs as would expose him to ridicule among those of adifierent
persuasion. Are you desirous of gaining information from books.'
What a fund of erudition will not this require ! How many lan-
guages must you learn ! How many librariss must you turn
over ! And who is to direct you in the choice of books .' There
are hardly to be found in any one country, the host books, on the
contrary side of the question, and still less is k to be expected
we should find books on all sides. The v/ritinffs of the adverse

'o"-

* Plutarch relates tliat the stoics, among ot'ner i.lln par.i Icxos, maiiitiiincJ that in
rase of contradictory opinions, it was n«clcss to linar tlic arguments of both partir;s ;
for, say tlioy, oiliier the first writer has pri)vi;il his proposition, or he has not. If lies
lias provcvl it, all is said that Ls reqnirof!, an. I the auveise parly onght to he condcjiin-
rJ ; if ho has not pmved it, he is in llic wron'^, antl onglit to be rejected. — This is ihe
way of rcligioniiiU in general, tliey «lil liuar bat one side of a questioa.

A SAVOYARD VICAR. 371

and absent party, where they even found, would be very easily
refuted. The absent are always in the wrong ; and the most
weak and insufficient arguments, laid down with a confident as-
surance, easily efface the most sensible and valid, when exposed
with contempt. Add to all this, that nothing is more fallacious
than books, nor e.xhibit less faithfully the sentiments of their wri-
ters. The judgment which you formed, foi" instance, of the Ro-
man Catholic religion, fmm the treatise of Bossuet, was very
different from that which you acquired by residing among us.
You have seen that the doctrines we maintain in our controver-
sies with the protestants, are not those which are taught the
common people, and that Bossuet's book by no means resembles
the instructions delivered from the pulpit. To. form a proper
judgment of any religion, we are not to deduce its tenets from
the books of its professors ; we must go and learn it among the
people. Each sect have their peculiar traditions, their customs,
and modes of acceptation, which constitute the peculiar mode of
their faith ; all which should be taken into consideration when
we form a judgment of thcjr religion.

How many considerable nations are there, who print no books
of their own, and read none of ours ! How are they to judge of
our opinions, or we of theirs ? We laugh at them, they despise
us ; and though our travellers have turned them into ridicule,
they need only to travel among us, to ridicule us in their turn.
In what country, are there not to be found men of sense and
sincerity, friends of truth, who require only to know, in order to
embrace it .'' And yet every one imagines truth confined to his
own particular sy^em, and thinks the religion of all other nations
in the world absurd ; these foreign modes, therefore cannot be
in reality so very absurd as they appear, or the apparant reason-
ableness of ours is less real.

We have three principal religions in Europe. One admits on-
ly of one revelation, another of two, and the third of three.
Each holds the other in detestation, anathematizes its professors,
accuses them of ignarance, obstinacy and falsehood. ^Vhat im-
partial person will presume to decide between them, without leav-
ing fir3t examined their proofs and heard their reasons: That
which admits only of one revelation is the most ancient, and seems
the least disputable ; that which admits of three is the most mod-
ern, and seems to be the most consistent ; that which admits of
two, and rejects the third, may possibly be the best ; but it has
certainly every prepossession against it : its inconsistency stares
one full in the face.

In all these three revelations, the sacred books are written in
languages unknown to the people wLo believe m them. The
Jews no longer understand Hebrew ; the Christians neither Greek
nor Hebrew ; the Turks and Persians understand no Arabic ;
and even the modern Arabs themselves speak not the language

572 PROFESSION OF FAITH OF

of Mahomet. Is not this a very simple manner of instructing
mankind, by talking to them always in a language which they do
not comprehend? But these books, it will be said, are translat-
ed ; a mighty pretty answer ! Who can assure me they are
translated faithfully, or that it is even possible they should be so?
Who can give me a sufficient reason why God, when he hath a
mind to speak to mankind, should stand in need of an interpret-
er ?

I can never conceive, that what every man is indispensably
obliged to know, can be shut up in these books ; or that he who
is incapacitated to understand them, or the persons who explain
them, will be punished for involuntary ignorance. But we are
always plaguing ourselves with books. What a frenzy! Because
Europe is full of books, the Europeans conceive them to be in-
dispensable, without reflecting that three fourths of the world
knew nothing at all about them. Are not all books written by
men.'* How greatly, therefore, must man have stood in need of
them, to instruct him in his duty ; and by what means did he
come to the knowledge of such duties, before books were writ-
ten.'' Either he must have acquired such knowledge himself, or
it must have been totally dispensed with.

We Roman Catholics, make a great noise about the authority
of the church : but what do we gain by it, if it requires as many
proofs to establish this authority as other sects require immedi-
ately to establish their doctrines? The church determines that
the church hath a right to determine. Is not this a special proof
of its authority ? Ar)d yet depart from this, and we enter into
endless discussions.

Do you kno-w many Christians, who have taken the pains to
examine carefully into what the Jews have alledged against us?
If there are a few who know something of them, it is from what
they have met with in the writings of Christians : a very pretty
manner truly of instructing themselves in the arguments of their
opponents! But what can be done? If any one should dare to
publish among us such books as openly espouse the cause of Ju-
daism, we should punish the author, the editor, and the booksel-
ler.* This policy is very convenient, and very sure to make us
always in the right. We can refute at pleasure those who arc
afraid to speak.

Those among us, also, who have an opportunity to converse
with the Jews, have but little advantage. These unhappy peo-
ple know they lie at our mercy ; the tyranny we exercise over

* Among a thoiisaiid known instances, the foI5owin;j stands in no need of com-
ment. Tlie Catludic divines of tlie sixleenlli century liavinij condemned all the Jew-
isli books, without exception, to lie Ijiu'ned, a learned and illii.strioiis theoiogue, who
was consulted on that occasion, had very nigh involved himself in ruin, hy being
pimpl) of opinion that such of them might be preserved as did not relate to Chris»
liaiiiiy, or treated of matters foreign to religion.

A SAVOYARD VICAR 373

them, renders them justly timid and reserved ; they know how
far cruelty and injustice are compatible with Christian charity :
what, therefore, can they venture to say to us, without running
the risk of incurring the charge of blasphemy ? Avarice in-
ispires us with zeal, and they are too rich not to be ever in the
wrong.

The most sensible and learned among them are the most cir-
cumspect and reserved. We make a convert, perhaps of some
wretched hireling, to calumniate his sect ; set a parcel of pitiful
brokers disputing, who give up the point merely to gratify us ;
but while we triumph over the ignorance or meanness of such
wretched opponents, the learned among them smile in contemp-
tuous silence at our folly.

But do you think that in places where they might write and
speak securely, we should have so much the advantage of them ?
Among the doctors of the Sorbonne, it is as clear as day-ligiit,
that the predictions concerning the Messiah relate to Jesus Christ.
Among the Rabbins at Amsterdam, it is just as evident they have
no relation to him. I shall never believe that I have acquired a
sufficient acquaintance with the arguments of the Jews, till they
compose a free and independent state, and have their schools
and universities, where they may talk and discourse with fredom
and impunity. Till then, we can never truly know what they
have to say.

At Constantinople, the Turks make known their reasons, and
we durst not publish ours : there it is our turn to submit. If
the Turks require of us to pay to JMahomet, in whom we do not
believe, the same respect which we require the Jews to pay to
Jesus Christ, in whom they believe as little ; can the Turks be
in the wrong, and we in the right ? On what principles of equity
can we resolve that question, in our own favour ?

Two thirds of mankind are neither Jews, Mahometans, nor
Christians ; how many millions of men, therefore, must there be
who never heard of Moses, of Jesus Christ, or of Mahomet !
Will this be denied .' Will it be said that our missionaries are
dispersed over the face of the whole earth ? This indeed is
easily affirmed ; but are there any of them in the interior of
Africa, where no European hath ever yet penetrated .'' Do they
travel th:-ough the inland parts of Tartary, or follow on horse-
back the wandering hordes, whom no stranger ever approaches,
. ind who, so far from having heard of the Pope, hardly know any
thing of their own Grand Lama ^ Do our missionaries traverse
the immense continent of America, where there are whole na-
tions still ignorant that the people of another world have set foot
on theirs ? Are there any of them in Japan, from whence their
ill behaviour hath banished them for ever, and where the fame
of their predecessors are transmitted to succeeding generations,
as that of artful knaves, who, under cover of a religious zeal,

32

374 PROFESSION Of FAITH OF

wanted to make themselves imperceptibly masters of the empire ?
Do they penetrate into the harams of the Asiatic princes, to
preach the gospel to millions of wretched slaves ? What will be-
come of the ^romen in that part of the world, for want of a mis-
sionary to preach the gospel to them ? Must every one of them
ao to hell for being a recluse ?

But were it true that the gospel is preached m every part of
the earth, the difficulty is not removed. On the eve preceding
the arrival ( f the first missionary in any country, some one
person of thit country expired without hearing the glad tidings.
Now, what must we do with this one person ? Is there but a
single individual in the whole universe, to whom the gospel of
Christ is not made known, the objection which presents itself,
on account of this one person, is as cogent as if it included a
fourth part of the human race.

Again, suppose the ministers of the gospel actually present
and preacliing in those distant nations, how can they reasonably
expect to be believed on their own word, and that their hearers
will not scrupulously require a confirmation of what they teach ?
IMight not any one of the latter very reasonably say to them,
" You tell me of a God who was born and put to death near two
thousand year.? ago, at the other end of the v/orld, and in I know
not what obscure town ; assuring me that all those who do not
believe in this mysterious tale are damned. These are things
too strange to be credited on the sole authority of a man, who is
himself a perfect stranger."

Why hath your God brought those events to pass, of which
he requires me to be instructed, at so great a distance ? Is it a
crime to be ignorant of what passes at the Antipodes ? Is it pos-
sible for me to divine that there existed, in the other hemisphere,
the people of the Jews, and the city of Jerusalem ^ I might as
well be required to know what happened in the moon. You are
come, you say, to inform me ; but why did you" not come time
enough to inform my father .' Or why do you damn that good
old man, because he knew nothiiifr of the matter ^ Ttlust he be
eternally punished for your delay ? ho who was so just, so be-
nevolent, and so desirous of knowing the truth ! Be honest, and
suppose yourself in my place. Do you think, upon your testi-
mony alone, that I can believe all these incredible things you
tell me ? or reconcile so much injustice with the character of that
just God, whom you pretend to make known .•' Let me first, I
pray you, go and see this distant country, where so many mira-
cles have happened, totally unknown here. Let me go and be
well inf(^rmed why the inhabitants of that Jerusalem presumed
to treat God like a thief or a murderer ?

They did not, you will say, acknowledge his divinity. How
then can I, who never have heard of him, but from you ? You
add, that they were punished, dispersed, and led into captivity ;

A SAVOYARD VICAR. 370

not one of them ever approaching their former city. Assuredly
they deserved all this : but its present inhabitants, what say they
of the unbelief and deicide of their predecessors ? They deny
it, and acknowledge the divinity of the sacred personage just as
little as did i's ancient inhabitants.

What ! in the same city in which your God was put to death,
neither the ancient nor preseiU inhabitants acknowledge his di-
vinity! And yet you would have me believe it, who was born
near two thousand years after the fact, and two thousand leagues
distant from the place ! Don't you see that, before I can give
credit to this book, which you call sacred, and of which I com-
prehend nothing, I ought to be informed from others, when and
by whom it was written, how it hath been preserved and trans-
mitted to you, what is said of it in the country, what are the rea-
sons of those who reject it, though they know as well as you ev-
ery thing of which you have informed ir>e.^ You must perceive
the necessity I am unde-r, of going tirst to Europe, to Asia, and
unto Palestine, to examine into things myself; and that I must be
an idiot to listen to you before I have done this.

Such a discourse as this, appears to me not only very reasona-
ble, but I affirm that every sensible man ought, in such circum-
stances, to speak in tl*e same manner, and to send a missionary
about his business, who should be in haste to instruct and baptise
him before he had sincerely verified the proofs of his mission.
Now, I maintain that there is no revelation against which the
same objections might not be made, and that with greater force,
than against Christianity. Hence it follows, that if there be in
the world but one true religion, and every man be obliged to
adopt it, under pain of damnation, it is necessary to spend our
lives in the study of all religions, to visit the countries where
they have been established, and examine and compare them with
each other. No man is exempted from the principal duty of his
species, and no one hath a right lo confide in the judgment of
another. The artisan, who lives only by his industry, the hus-
bandman, who cannot read, the timid and dehcate virgin, the fee-
ble valetudinarian, all without exception, must study, meditate,
dispute, and travel the world over, in search of truth. There
would be no longer any settled inhabitants in a country, the face
of the earth being covered by pilgrims, going from place to place,
at great'trouble and expense, to verify, examine and compare the
several different systems and modes of worship to be met with in
various countries. We must, in- such a case, bid adieu to arts
and sciences, to trade, and all the civil occupations of life. Ev-
ery other study must give place to that of religion ; while the
man who should enjoy the greatest share of health and strength,
and make the best use of his time and his reason, for the greatest
term of years allotted to human life, would, in the extreme of old
age, be still perplexed where to fix : and it would be a great

376 PROFESSION OF PAITH OP

thing, afier all, if he should learn before his death what religion
he ought to have believed and practised during life.

Do you endeavour to mitigate the severity of this method, and
place as little confidence as possible in the authority of men ?
In so doing you place the greatest confidence : for if the son of
a Christian does right, in adopting, without a scrupulous and
impartial examination, the religion of his father, how can the son
of a Turk do wrong, in adopting in the same manner, the reli-
gion of Mahomet ? I defy all the persecutors in the world to
answer this question in a manner satisfactory to any person of
common sense. Nay, some of them, when hard pressed by such
arguments, will sooner admit that God is unjust, and visits the
sins of the fathers on the children, than give up their cruel and
persecuting principles. Others, indeed, elude the force of these
reasons, by civilly sending an angel to instruct those, who, un-
der invincible ignorance, five, nevertheless, good moral lives. A
very pretty device, truly, that of the angel! not contented with
subjecting us to their machinery, they would reduce the Deity
himself to the necessity of employing it.

See, my son, to what absurdities we are led by pride, and the
spirit of persecution, by being puffed up by our own capacity,
and conceiving that we possess a greater share of reason than
the rest of mankind. I call to witness that God of peace whom
I adore, and whom I would make known to you, that my re-
searches have been always sincere : but seeing that they were,
and always must be, unsuccessful, and that I was launched out
into a boundless ocean of perplexity, I returned the way I came,
and confined my creed within the limits of my first notions. I
could never believe that God required me, under pain of dam-
nation, to be so very learned. I, therefore, shut up all my books:
that of nature lies open to every eye. It is from this sublime
and wonderful volume that I learn to serve and adore its divine
Author. No person is excusable for neglecting to read in this
book, as it is written in an universal language, intelligible to all
mankind. Had I been born in a desert island, or never seen a
human creature beside myself 5 had I never been informed of
what had formerly happened in a certain corner of the world ; I
might yet have learned by the exercise and cultivation of my
reason, and by the proper use of those faculties God hath given
me, to know and love him ; I might hence have learned to love
and admire his power and goodness, and to have discharged my
duty here on earth.

Such is the involuntary scepticism in which I remain: this
scepticism, however, is not painful to me, because it extends not
to any essential point of practice •, and as my mind is firmly set-
tled regarding the principles of my duty, I serve God in the sin-
cerity of my heart. In the mean time, I seek not to know any
thing more than what relates to my moral conduct : and aa to

SAVOYARD VICAR. 377

■'hose dogmas, which have no influence over the behaviour, and
which many persons give themselves so much trouble about, I
am not at all solicitous concerning them.

Thus, my young friend, have 1 given you with my own lips a
recital of my creed, such as the supreme Being reads it in my
heart. You are the first person to whom I have made this pro-
lession : you are also the only one, perhaps, to whom I shall
ever make it.

You are now arrived at the critical term of life, in which the
mind opens itself to conviction, in which the heart receives the
form and character which it bears during life, whether good or
ill. Its subs^tance grows afterwards hard, and receives no new
impressions. Now is tiie time, therefore; to impress on your
mind the seal of truth. If i were more positive in myself, I
should have assumed a more decisive and dogmatical air ; but,
what can I do more ? I have opened to you my heart, witliout
reserve : wliat I have thought certain, I have given you as such ;
my doubts I have declared as doubts, my opinions as opinions ;
and have given you my reasons for both. It remains, now, for
you to j;idge ; you have taken time ; this precaution is wise, and
makes me think well of you. Begin by bringing your con-
science to a state desirouo of being enlightened. Be sincere
with yourself Adopt those of my sentiments which you are
persuaded are true, and reject the rest. You are not yet so
much depraved by vice to run the risk of making a bad choice.
I should propose to confer together sometimes on these subjects ;
but as soon as ever we enter into disputes we grow Avarm : ob-
stinacy and vanity interfere, and sincerity is banished. For my
own part, it was not till after several years of meditation that my
sentiments became fixed ; these, however, I still retain, my con-
science is easy, and I am content. Were I desirous to begin
a new examination into the truth of these sentiments, I could
not do it with a more sincere love to truth : and my mind at pres-
ent less active, would be less in a state to discover it. I pur-
pose, therefore, to remain as I am, lest my taste for contempla-
tion should become insensibly an idle passion ; lest it should
make me indifferent to the discharge of my practical duties.
About half my life is already spent, the remainder will not afford
me time more than sufficient to repair my errors by my virtues.
If I am mistaken, it is not wilfully. That Being, who searches
the hearts of men, knows that I am not fond of ignorance. But
under my present incapacity to instruct myself better, the only
method that remains for me to extricate myself, is a good hfe.

A LETTER

FROM

ROUSSEAU TO HIS BOOKSELLER

AT THE HAGUE.

Sir, — I am very sorry for that embarrassment which you tell
me you lie under, on account of the Savoyard's Creed, inserted
in my Emilius ; but I declare to you again, once for all, that no
threats, no violence, shall ever prevail on me to suppress a sylla-
ble ofwhat I have written. As you did not think it necessary to
consult me with regard to the contents of my manuscript, when
you treated for the copy, you have no right to make application
to me now, on account of the obstacles you may meet with to its
publication ; especially as to the bold truths scattered up and
down in my other works, miglit very naturally suggest to you,
that this was by no means exempt from the like. I am astonish-
i.d you should ever conceive that a man, who takes so many pre-
cautions that his works may not be altered after his decease,
would permit them to be mutilated during his life time.

With respect to the several reasons you have urged, you might
have spared yourself that trouble, by supposing tiiat I had my-
self reflected on what is proper to be done. You tell me that I
am censured by people of my own way of thinking. But, this
cannot possibly be ; for I who certainly am of my own way of
thinking, approve what I have done : nor is there any action of
my whole lite with which my heart is more perfectly satislicd.
In ascribing glory to God, and endeavouring to promote the
good of mankind, I have done my duty ; whether they profit bv
it or not. I would not give a straw to convert their censure to
applause. As for the rest, to take things in the worst light, what
can the world do to me more than the infirmities of my nature
will very speedily do of themselves ? The public can neither
confer nor deprive me of my reward ; this depends not on any
human power. You see, therefore, that my measures are taken
let what will happen ; for which reason, I would advise y»u to
press rne no farther on the subject ; as every thing you can pos-
sibly advance will be absolutely to no purpose.

RELIGIOUS dogmas;

THEIR ORIGIN AND CONSEQUENCES.

This Article first appeared in " The Prospect.'^'' It was tvrilten by
a Mr. Taylor, an Englishman, a particular friend of Elihu
Palmer, editor of that work.

Religion, in its most common acceptation, is a complex idea
compounded of three things totally distinct from each other ; the
first I shall mention is the observance of certain rites and cere-
monies, such as circumcision — baptism — fasting on particular
days — feasting on others — abstaining from pleasures, and many
other external symbols which have, by some, been considered as
the sum total of religion. 2dly. There is included in the idea
of religion, an assent to certain metaphysical propositions, such
as the nature and properties of the supreme intelligence, the ex-
tent of his interference in the affairs of this world, and the na-
ture and essence of the human soul. 3dly. The word religion
has also included in it an approbation of some systems of mo-
rality, supposed to be deduced as a necessary inference from the
articles of belief. Hence it has been said, morality itself, or the
knowledge and practice of duties alone, is not religion, without
it be accompanied with the observance of certain rites, and the
belief in a metaphysical creed. Neither is the observance of
the established ceremonies to be considered as acts of religion,
unless the prescribed duties be also fulfilled ; but above all things
the mind must give its assent to the metaphysical creed. Finally,
this metaphysical creed, which in every case is so essentially
necessary, is not of itself religion. Ceremonies must be observ-
ed, and that kind of morality, deducible from an absurd creed,
must be adhered to, as far as the weakness of our supposed fallen
nature will allow.

Nothing could have supported extravagant rites and ceremo-
nies, or chained men's minds down to absurd creeds if these
had not been artfully interwoven with a plausible system of mo-
rality ; nor would men have submitted to call that good which is
in its nature evil, or that evil, which is naturally good, if the
mind had not been prepossessed with a false creed.

It is, therefore, my intention to inquire how this association of

380 R»SLIGIOUS DOGMAS.

three ideas totally distinct came to take place and assume the
name of religion — what connexion they have in nature — whether
they may not be separated without injury to morality ; and, final-
ly, having thus stripped morality of the load with which it has
been incumbered, we shall then see what ought to be the idea or
definition of true religion.

As it would take up too much time to examine the whole or
these propositions, we shall content ourselves with an investiga-
tion of the probable origin of rites, ceremonies, and creeds. In
all ages mankind have believed in the existence of celestial be-
ings, who have been supposed to direct the affairs of this lower
world, and have been anxious to know their will, and as far back
as the history of man has been preserved, the practice was to
have recourse to oracles ; and, frequently, it is said, anticipating
the wishes of man, communicated their will in dreams or visions:
but as oracles and dreams were always ambiguous, a class of
men sprung up, who, taking advantage of the passions of the
ignorant, pretended to a superior skill in the interpretation of
these imaginary enigmas : this was found to be so profitable an
employment, that its professors, desirous of converting it into a
trade, wherein many hands might be employed, under the direc-
tion, and for the emolument of one chief; taught their pupils that
certain appearances in nature, denoted certain purposes of the
gods ; hence the management of the Urim and Tliuminim among
the Jews, which answers to the purpose of reading cards or cups,
by old women of the present day : of the same kind also, were
predictions from the appearance of the entrails of sacrificed ani-
mals, and the manner of the flight of birds. This was the origin
of the priesthood and of priestcraft. Afterwards the followers of
the craft, while they were deceiving the world by lies, were them-
selves deceived, believing, as they did, implicitly in the corres-
pondences taught or transmitted to them from the first deceivers.

As the whole invention of converting lying into a trade was
only that its followers might live in splendid idleness ; and as
money was not then a representative for wealth, sacrifices and
offerings were invented : the first to satisfy the hunger of the
priests, the second to procure them the gratification of their pas-
sions : and as in those days the people were accustomed to bar-
ter, and to give one substantial object for another, it was neces-
sary to give them some plausible reason that might satisfy the
minds of the people, as to the strange absurdity and injustice of
taking a bullock, or a ram of the best of their flocks for that which
cost nothing, they were therefore told, that these sacrifices and
ofTerings were pleasing and acceptable to the gods, and that for
these small donations, or rather bribes, the heavenly powers
would be propitious, and change their absolute decrees.

This period of deception may be called the age of oracles, and
it lasted as long as the priests were moderate in their demands ;

ftELlGIOUi DOGMAS. 381

while they preserved some show of decency in then- manners, and
while the characters and actions of their gods were such as indi-
cate a divine origin ; but when the priests became too rapacious
and greedy, and when their morals and the morals ascribed to
their gods grew to be so dissolute and abandoned that they had
more the appearance of demons and tyrants, than of gods, and
men desirous of the happiness of the human race, then this su-
perstition, after combating with reason for several centuries, was
obliged to give place to another equally absurd and wicked, but
which in its commencement gained the approbation of the people
by the purity of the lives of the first promulgators ; this is thu
doctrine of discovering the will of gods from books of scripture.
Oracles or dreams were then said to be abandoned as improper
means of communicating the will of gods to men.

Demons, it is said, had taken advantage of those means and
had egregiously deceived the people, insomuch, that the v ill of
demons or evil spirits were generally substituted for tliat of t!ie
true God. A doctrine which gained an easy belief from the peo-
ple of those times, as the will of the gods expressed by the ora-
cles tended more frequently to the destruction than preservation
of mankind. It was said, also, that to prevent the interference
of devils or false (lying) gods, the only true God had written or
caused to be written in some ancient manuscript books, some of
them in the language of Paradise which was almost forgotten,
and hardly understood, and others in the prevailing language of
that time, which was the Greek ; that they ordered these books
to be collected and preserved for the instruction of men in all
ages and in every nation ; and he promises, that this shall be his
unaherable will and last testament ; that he will no longer confuse
or perplex the people of the earth with nevv regulations and laws;
and finally, that he would, to the end of time, continue a succes-
sion of priests whose trade it should be to interpret those book.^,
and reconcile their contradictions, for which they are to receive
money, and thereby put an end to sacrifices.

It is evident that the inventor* of this doctrine had the same
end in view, svith those others who invented correspondences and
the interpretation of dreams : namely, to form it into a trade or
crall for the mutual benefit of the concerned : though some
good people have been surprised that there ever should exist
such villany as to impose upon mankind by falsiryir^g the uivme
being, and making God as it were accessary to their crimes. 1 o
which it may be answered, that this species of villany proceeds
from a most accursed principle, which never was more prevalent
than now, namely, " That such is the perverse nature ol man, so
prone is he to do evil that it is necessary to deceive him m order
that he may be persuaded to pursue his own good." Let a man s
mind be possessed of this principle, and add to it talents and op-
portunity, and he will not hesitate to raise his fortune and power

382 UELIGIOUS DOGMAS

by taking sacrilegious liberties with the character of the Supreme
Intelligence.

Having got possession of Some of those books, and having
reserved to themselves the interpretation of them, they began to
leach the world doctrines suited to their own views and interest,
all of which will be examined in due time, by the eye of reason
and the standard of nature. It was unfortunate for mankind
that there should be so many books (written in difTerent centu-
ries, and by men of contrary sentiments) exhibited to the world
as the will of God, and holding out, as these books do, the char-
acter of the Deity, in so many different points of view ; some-
times as a sanguinary tyrant, who cannot be satisfied but by
blood and sacrifices, and every species of absurd formality ; — 'at
other times as a kind, beneficent being, who held sacrifices, new
moons, and the most solemn meetings as an abomination ;— ^at
one time declaring himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, and afterwards professing to be the God of the whole
earth. In one book issuing a decree that the children shall bear
the sins of their fathers even to the third and fourth generation,
and in another repealing that law when it became disagreeable
to the people, and they had made use of a taunting proverb con-
cerning it, viz. " The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the
children's teeth are set on edge by it." Jer. 21, 29. These
contradictions could not fail to cause dispute, but they have done
more, they have been the cause of bloody and destructive wars,
which have not only disgraced religion, but human nature, and
put back the age of reason ibr many centuries. This was an
accident, however, that was unavoidable, fjr the Jews had from a
national pride, and by universal consent, consecrated all their
ancient books that were Saved after their return from Babylon,
and the first Christians, however wilHng they might be, hail not
sufficient authority to bring in question the fact of their inspi-.
ration.

Towards the end of the age of oracles, and the commence-
ment of the age we are now s{j,eaking of, which may be termed
the age of scripture belief, every tiling written in the ancient
Hebrew tongue, was sought alter with wonderful avidity. It
was a mania that possessed the world at tluit time, as antique
medals and pictures have done at other periods ; they sought for
them tio c.r hidden treasure, and every fragment tliat could be
rescued from obscurity and the teeth oY time, was considered of
inestimable value. It was the same with any Greek epistle or
fragment that in the slightest manner mentioned the name of
Jesus Ciirist or his disciple.;. This mania lasted for several cen-
turies, during which time the scri[)turcs, or manuscripts which
they called tlie word of God, were growing in the bulk and mat-
ter for disputation. Forgeries of epistles and gospels in Greek,
were numerous ; those in Hebrew were fewer,because not many

RELIGIOUS DOGMAS. 383

understood that language ; besides there were more scripture
already in the Hebrew, than suited the doctrines which the first
Christians were anxious to establish. For a long time, there-
fore, it was the wish of many that several of the Hebrew books
were out of the sacred catalogue, it was found so difficult to
make them bend to the new opinions.

When the age of scripture belief was in its full ; and the peo-
ple as ignorant as could be wished by designing men, a c(>uncil
was called who took upon them to determine upon the validity of
the last will and testament of Almighty God. By this council
several of the books were deprived of their sacred character ;
but whether the true or the forged is uncertain.

From that period the teachers and the taught have been equally
deceiving and deceived ; Ave do not, therefore, charge any Chris-
tians of the present day with preaching a false doctrine on pur-
pose to deceive ; but we say of them as Charles V., Emperor of
Germany, said of Luther and Calvin — tliey are seduced by their
own opinions, and tliat their own interest, coupled with that most
abominable of all principles mentioned above, namely, that men
must, bo deceived for their own good, causes them to despise the
dictates of reason, and assist in perpetuating the deception.

The age of scripture belief has been the most dreadful ajra,
and the most calamitous to the human race that history has re-
corded. In one war, the crusades, which Avas about a rotten
piece of wood, the cross of Christ, there was more money spent,
blood shed, cruelties committed, than in any war either before or
since. At the taking of Jerusalem 20,000 Turks were slain, and
notwithstanding a proclamation of pardon, the Christians put to
death all the Turks found in the city, without regard to age or
«ex, with the same zeal, as the authors of those days call it,
wherewith Saul slew the Gibeonites.

It is not my intention at this time to enumerate the evils that
this system has occasioned. Experience has sufficiently sliown
how miserable man has been during the whole age of scripture
belief, and that the system itself is giving way very fast to tho
light of reason, which alone can give man an adequate idea of
an intelligent first cause and of the means which he has provided
for our improven.ent and happiness.

It is only my intention to show that the true God can only be
known by the investigation of reason contemplating the mighty
frabric of the universe, and perceiving throughout the whole a
unity of design and a wonderful contrivance. This is the first
perception or glimpse of the Deity ; the actions upon whicli all
our future reasonings must be founded, and from which all the
knowledge we can attain of him or of his ways with man is drawn.
By beginning at the source we shall see nothing in the Supreme
IntelligerHje but immense goodness and power, no partialities, no
injustice or eternal punishiucnt for crimes of a moment, or for

384 RELIGIOUS DOGiyiAS.

acting in obedience to the unalterable laws of nature. — Led by
the light of reason man will perform his duty as a son under the
eye of a kind parent ; he will perform his duty because he sees
it to be the road to self-satisfaction, and that he is acting a part
in a great work, which he is desirous of seeing accomplished.
He considers himself as belonging to the great family of mankind,
and is assured that his own happiness cannot be complete with-
out a regard to the happiness of the whole family. In his
opinion, heaven itself could not be the seat of happiness, if such
a pli.ce as hell has an existence in the universe. But he who
has no other check to his vicious propensities but a fear of hell-
fire, thinks that were that obstacle removed, man would riot in
vice and in the gratification of every lust, little -loes he think that
virtue may be loved and followed with as much ardour, if not
more, than vice, when we have a good opinion of the justice and
goodaess of God. But how is it possible men should be virtuous
when the God they pretend to worship is represented as a tyrant,
and unjust, whose forgiveness for an ill spent life may be obtain-
ed by the most ridiculous ceremonies or foolish credulity,

We have, therefore, undertaken to expose and set in its true
light the character of the God of the Hebrews as it is represent-
ed in the first books of the Bible, to show that he waS not tho
tru« God, but an imaginary being conjured up to serve the po-
litical purposes of Moses — to show also that men who believe in
such a God cannot be virtuous, or good citizens, or believe in
the true God ; and this is the only reason why so much iniquity
abounds.

Although the three roras that I have noticed are remarkable in
the history of human mind, yet it must not'be understood that I
think the principles of t!ie Age of Reason have never made their
appearance ; because I place that sera as following the other two,
or that tliere arc no other a;ras — no — the case is, that althouch
there never has been an ajra which could be justly denominated
the Age of Reason, yet its principles have been recognised in all
ages, and in every country were there have been men who had
courage to divest themselves of the prevailing prejudices, and use
the fiiculties of their own minds to discover truth ; and several
of the authors of the JJi'jle were certainly m^n of this descrip-
tion ; such were the authors of the book of Job ; of some of the
Psalms and several chapters of Isaiah, (for both these books ap-
pear to be a collection,) and also the prophet IMnlachi and Jesus
the son of Sirach, (apocryphal,) and finally Jesus Clirist himself
and tl>e authors of the Apostles and Jude — all these were men
evidently exercising their own reason on the works of God, in
regard to which men will in all ages, and in every country with-
out communication with each other, have nearly the same senti-
ments, and be prompted by reflection to the same duties. — Uni-
versal good will and peace to man.

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